The Hour Before Midnight
by Priestess of Groove
Summary: Harvey and Mike are kidnapped with their newest client who has a history of bad dealings.  Can they be reached in time?  NOT SLASH.  There are TWO final chapters, not just one.
1. Taken

**Author's Note: **Hello again, fellow Suits fans! =) A few things to clear up before we get on with the story:

1). This is in no way connected to 'No Rest For the Wicked' or 'The Long Road.' Donna and Harvey are NOT together, but details such as their family history will remain the same.

2). The title is just a stand in. If any of you fine readers can think of a title, please feel free to share. =)

Now, I hope you enjoy the story!

**Taken**

"I can assure you, Mr. Lombardi, the details will be smoothed over when we get back to the office," Harvey Specter said to their newest client, gracing him with his most charming smile.

Mike took a small sip of water, following Harvey out of the corner of his eye, observing his demeanor and carefully stored every word by his mentor to glean everything he could from it later. It was the first time he had been allowed to attend a wine-n-dine since he started working at Pearson Hardman. Eight months of careful work had finally allowed him to graduate to the adolescents table as Harvey termed it, for he was meant to be seen and not heard. This made Mike roll his eyes in exasperation. That had only earned him a look that could be precisely translated to, '_See what I mean? Adolescent.'_

To be quite honest, he thought Harvey had hyped the experience to proportions far greater than what it was actually worth. This particular client had already been halfway lured in from recommendations and, naturally, Harvey's reputation of being able to win at everything. Really, it was just a matter of dragging the catch into the boat and Mike couldn't even enjoy the whole ritual; Harvey forbade him from having any alcohol!

"Oh, come on, Harvey, you act like I have the alcohol tolerance of a teenager girl," Mike had said to him on the way over.

"Well, maybe if you didn't act like one," Harvey replied with a flat look. It took some effort to keep from smiling at the absolutely miffed look Mike gave him. "Again, no! After lunch, you're going to start the research and I really don't need the alcohol fogging your brain."

"One glass is not going to obliterate my memory," Mike snapped at him.

"This is not a negotiation, Mike," Harvey finally replied, ending the argument with a glare and a frown for good measure.

So it was with some dissatisfaction that Mike could now make the case that chicken alfredo was horrendous with water and wine was a requirement. It was nice to get a free meal by simply sitting at the table and smiling in a supportive way, but otherwise the client paid very little attention to him. He had experienced this before whenever Harvey catered to the ultra wealthy.

Mr. Lombardi gave Harvey a big smile, nodding eagerly even as he reached for yet another breadstick. Mike struggled to keep from grimacing at the man who had a passing resemblance to Harvey, with his fine suits, slicked back hair, and brown eyes. In contrast, though, his skin was much darker and he was much heavier by indication of the belly that caused his clothes to protrude outward and his face appeared to be littered with pock marks, like the skin had never managed to recover from horrible teenage acne. Just the barest sliver of a gold tooth gleamed out at them from that wide smile.

"Good to hear, Mr. Specter. All I've ever heard about you is that you're the best. This should be easier said than done," he crowed with a twisted grin, as he rubbed his hands together as though he were plotting to steal kittens.

"Now, Mr. Lombardi, I am the best closer in the city but victory isn't always assured. As long as the information in your financial records is accurate, though, we should be able to draw up a deal that meets your every demand."

The change on their client was so instantaneous that Mike briefly wondered if his wine had been tainted with the potion Dr. Jekyll drank The man's face turned an alarming dark red and his smile transformed into an ugly sneer. "What are you saying?"

"I am saying that our primary strategy is based primarily on the thorough research we do," Harvey replied smoothly. "We never go into any case unprepared."

The jovial attitude returned just as quickly as it left and the man laughed loudly and grinned widely at them. "Good to see I hired lawyers actually willing to do their job. Excuse me for a moment."

As soon as the man left their sight, the smile dropped from Harvey's face and he glanced over at Mike. "This man is dirty."

"Really? He seems bipolar," Mike replied, but he had the same inkling Harvey had.

"I want you to be extra thorough researching his financial records. He's bound to have a few bad deals hidden in the details."

"Mhmm." Mike nodded, his eyes flicked over to where the man disappeared, and he said, "Here he comes."

"I want you to be thorough researching this company, Mike. We don't want Mr. Lombardi to purchase anything with any unnecessary baggage."

"I'll spot any anomalies, Harvey," Mike replied, unable to keep from quirking his mouth in amusement, as their client took his seat again. The man appeared to be in pure glee.

"Why don't we head back to the firm to sort out the details of our arrangement and I'll send my associate to do the research," Harvey suggested.

"Certainly. After you," the man gestured for them to walk ahead. Mike had to move quickly to fall in step with Harvey as he moved purposefully and gracefully through the maze of tables. Mike only saw him pause ever so slightly to glance at the driver of Mr. Lombardi's limo, causing the smile on the driver's face to wilt ever so slightly, but he continued to hold the door open for them.

Mike made sure to give him a nice smile, internally shaking his head at Harvey's complete distrust of all drivers that weren't Ray. The back compartment of the limo was big enough for two rows of seats and so Mike plopped down on the seat against the driver's compartment, while Harvey and Mr. Lombardi took up the other side.

Much like at the restaurant, Mike found himself yet again cut from the conversation and he had to lean forward to feel like an actual participant. Since many of the details of business had been discussed at the restaurant and would be talked over again at the office, the conversation took a turn toward sports. It didn't take long for Mike's attention to wane, due to the fact that he didn't even own a TV and he had never cared much for sports anyway. Even despite that, he made an effort to keep up with the conversation, if only to avoid the _'I don't care how irrelevant the subject is, you better pay attention to a conversation with a client' _speech, but he couldn't resist looking out the window. He watched a few buildings pass when he was struck by something odd.

"It really is interesting that – "

"Hey, wait, aren't we going back to the firm?"

He winced ever so slightly at the glare Harvey gave him for interrupting, but then he looked out the window and the frown turned puzzled. They appeared to have left the business section of the city and were traveling past rows of houses and apartment buildings. "The driver could be avoiding traffic," Harvey supplied, but Mike could see he appeared troubled.

"Hmm…" Mr. Lombardi tapped on the glass partition and asked, "We are going to Pearson Hardman, yes?"

"Yes, sir. This is just a detour."

Mr. Lombardi sat back and gave them a satisfied smile. Harvey returned it, but Mike could easily see behind the lawyer's eyes that he wasn't buying it. Mike, though, pegged that on, yet again, Harvey's inherent distrust of all other drivers but his own. At least, that's what Mike used to convince himself, but a strange and alarming dread was starting to travel up his spine.

When ten minutes passed and they traveled even further on the outskirts of New York, the confusion and – dare he say it? – fear began to grow in the car. All subsequent banging on the driver's partition was met with silence.

"Should we call the police?" Mike said, struggling to keep his voice controlled.

"It could be nothing," Harvey replied, looking ever the picture of calm and collected.

Mike shot him a look: _How many movies have you seen?_

Harvey gave it right back: _This isn't a movie!_

No matter how fearful Mike was feeling, it was nothing compared to their client. Sweat was pouring down his face and he reached over to pound frantically on the glass and yell, "Where are we going? Please answer me! Are you two sure we're not going to your firm?"

"Yes," they both answered.

"Please, Mr. Lombardi, you're going to need to calm down. All you're doing is wasting energy. It could be nothing." The client sat down, but his eyes continued to dart around the space as thought there was a hidden exit to be found.

Mike gave his boss another exasperated look and suggested again, "Maybe we should call the police."

"What are we going to tell them? 'Please come help us! We don't know where we're going!'" Harvey couldn't keep from rolling his eyes despite being in front of their client.

Mike hated to admit it, but Harvey did have a point. However, he persisted, "Maybe if you give them your name…!"

"I didn't cozy up to the dispatchers when I worked there. And I have a feeling that telling them to come because it's me would put me lower on the list of priorities."

It was at this moment they slowed to a stop. Both lawyers peered out the windows and found they had been driven to a deserted shipping yard surrounded by several shipping containers. They glanced at each other; Mike fearful, Harvey grim. Just then a man opened the door to reveal a machine gun's muzzle, twinkling in the sunlight. "Out of the car."


	2. Threatened

**Author's note: **You guys are great! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and put this story on their alerts. Here is the next chapter! Enjoy! =)

**Threatened**

Harvey climbed out first, holding his hands up in the air. Mike was next and as much as he tried to keep as calm as Harvey, his eyes widened when he saw yet another four men off to the side, three of them also with machine guns. He glanced over at Harvey and relaxed when he caught his eye. The older lawyer was solemn, but there was still a note of confidence, by evidence of his relaxed postured and overall lack of fear.

"Come on, Lombardi. It's time to stop running," the man without a gun called out. He appeared to be fairly young – younger than Harvey – in a nice suit of his own and wearing a neatly trimmed goatee.

Mr. Lombardi, however, was continuing to hide in the back of the limo, even despite the gun that the henchman was using to gesture at him. Their client finally climbed out of the vehicle with his hands held up in surrender and he was trembling from head to toe. As soon as he walked more than couple of steps away the henchmen closed the door and the limo peeled out of the area, leaving only a pair of tire tracks from the burnt rubber.

Mike watched it go with longing and fear. This was a bad situation and he immediately joined Harvey in the Distrust of all Drivers Who Weren't Ray Club.

The man with the goatee smirked coldly at Lombardi. "Well, I gave you six months – a time frame, I remind you, that is much more generous than most – so, where's my money?"

"Just give me a few more days and you'll have it," Lombardi replied in a weak voice. "just let us go – alive!"

"I've given you enough time. And now look, you've had to drag someone else into your problem," the man said, gesturing at Harvey and Mike.

Mike saw his boss flinch ever so slightly and he caught his associate's eye once more The confidence was still there, but Mike could see that even Harvey's famed control was slipping and quickly being replaced by nervousness.

Lombardi had turned ghostly pale and kept pleading, "Please, just give me a few more days, Lucio."

"That's what you said the last two times," Lucio said with a disgusted shake of his head. "I have a feeling that's what you're always going to say." Then he reached into his jacket, pulled out a gun, and shot their client clean in the head.

Mike jumped nearly a foot in the air. He would have sprinted away in complete panic if Harvey hadn't grabbed his arm. He only let go when he was certain Mike wouldn't jackrabbit and likely get himself shot.

The man with the pistol stared down at Lombardi's body in disgust. "Put him in the trunk. Wrap his head so it doesn't bleed all over the car. " Then he turned and leveled his gun at the both of them and they raised their hands up again. "Now what should I do with you? I can't let you go to run off and squeal about his death, which, I assure you, was very much justified, but it's a shame he had to drag you into this. I really do hate killing innocent parties; it's so much easier to clean up a mess when the victim is as much despised as Lombardi was. No one will miss him."

"Then don't kill us," Harvey replied smoothly enough.

Mike closed his eyes and had to bite his tongue to keep from berating his own boss for say something so stupid. _Oh my God, Harvey is going to get us both killed_.

"You're a bold one, but I suppose I should have expected that from a suit," Lucio said with an amused grin, but he lowered his gun. "As I said though, I can't have you running off to inform the police."

"I'd like to see you try and hide three bodies."

"I'm always up to a challenge."

"But, as you said, people will miss me. They _will_ actively search for me and my associate to find out what happened to us and when they do find out, you and your cronies will find yourself with a triple homicide in the first degree. Now, the death penalty is illegal in New York, but that just means a lifetime sentence with not only the most unpleasant people in New York, but, very likely, with people whom you have found yourself…._at odds_ with."

Mike cracked an eye open to look at Harvey and then his eyes flickered over to Lucio who had cocked his head to stare at the lawyer, no doubt surprised by his complete audacity.

"Just kill him Lucio!"

"Shut up," the man snarled back at his henchman and turned back to them. He was clearly perturbed by the possibilities in Harvey's words and he actually appeared to be searching the area for an answer.

Mike did his best to keep his emotions from his face, but at the moment, the overwhelming feeling of _hope_ was beginning to bubble up and replace the fear that had originally been fighting for him to flee. Maybe they _could_ get out of this alive!

Finally, the man looked at them again. "You make one damn good point, suit," Lucio replied, but there was a slow smile starting to work its way back onto his face and this made the associate's heart plummet straight into his stomach. The man raised his gun, "but I still can't let you go. Now walk over there!"

Mike followed Harvey with an open grimace and he closed his eyes, trying desperately to keep the whimper that was trying to climb out of his throat. _This is it. I am going to die. I'm so sorry, grammy! You outlived your son and now you're going to outlive your grandson. I wish things could be different._

"Stop." The associate opened his eyes to find they had stopped in front of a shipping container. "Tony, open it!" Another henchman strode forward and slowly, if rather clumsily, fiddled with the latches on the front of the container and then managed to pull the front down. "Get in."

Just as Harvey stepped on the ramp, his phone started to ring and he couldn't keep from wincing.

"Search them. We can't have them calling for help now, can we?" Lucio said and Tony immediately pulled open Harvey's jacket pocket to pull out his phone, which he tossed to his boss.

"Donna? That your wife?"

The whole time, Harvey had kept a rather consistent, if bored looking, expression on his face, but Mike did not miss the tightening around his eyes and there was a flicker of something in his eyes to Lucio's words. "Just my stupid secretary."

"Donna," the man said, trying out the name as if he had never encountered it before. "Such a pretty name. Pretty as she is?"

Harvey was clenching his jaw while trying not to show it, but tension lined every muscle in his shoulders. "Ever heard of a hot secretary?"

Lucio smirked. "You're bluffing. I'm almost certain of it." Harvey said nothing in return, which only made the man smile even more evilly. Then he gestured towards the associate and said, "Tony, check him too."

Mike had to consciously keep himself from punching Tony, who frisked him roughly while he checked every single jacket and pants pocket for his own phone and wallet. The man walked back over to his boss with their possessions who had his hand out in anticipation.

"Now get in."

They did as they were told. Mike had barely cleared the opening before the lid went straight back up and they heard all the latches being put into place. The container was almost completely pitch black if not for two tiny windows up top with what appeared to be fishnet spread over them so that even just a little light came through.

Lucio suddenly appeared at one of the windows and leered in at them. "You were right. Not only would it be hard to hide three bodies, but now I won't have to worry about first degree murder charges for you too. I mean, it would hardly be my fault that you starved to death in there. Now, I think I'll go and pay that secretary of yours a visit. I'm sure we'll have a great time together." Then he was gone.

They heard the footsteps of all the men walk off to their car, where they heard a low grunt of them undoubtedly dumping Mr. Lombardi's body into the trunk of the car. All the doors shut and they heard a squeal of tires as the driver of that car also peeled out as quickly as they could until finally they were alone. For a moment, silence filled the container. Then Mike finally gathered his wits and decided to break it.

"Way to go, Harvey."

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks again for the reviews and thank you for any future reviews, faves, and alerts! <strong>


	3. Missed

**Author's note: **Thank you all so much for reading, reviewing, and all of the alerts! You guys are wonderful! =) I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

**Missed**

Donna knew something was wrong when Harvey did not come walking in a quarter after one. The lunch shouldn't have taken more than an hour and so, with her eye on the hallway, she decided to call. The phone rang a few times before it abruptly went to voicemail. She frowned at the phone and hung up.

Harvey never missed her calls. Being the secretary that she was, if she was phoning him then it was automatically important and should be taken under any circumstance. Still, she played it off as nothing and continued typing away, surreptitiously glancing at the clock every few minutes. With each passing minute, her worry grew.

Donna snatched up the phone and called again. She held her breath, but disconnected the call as soon as it went to voicemail.

Where the hell was Harvey?

She then decided to dial Mike in case Harvey was somehow too busy, but her concern only amped up when it too went to voicemail. _Jesus, where are they?_ As cool and controlled as she tried to keep during this strange development, her fingers stabbed at the keyboard as she waited to hear back from them.

When 2 o'clock rolled around and not a single call disrupted her work, she formulated a plan of action. She called up the next scheduled client, who had been set for 2:30, and moved it to a later date, and then she gathered up her purse and her phone and headed down the hall, only stopping once she reached her goal.

"Hi, Donna," Jessica's secretary, Julie, smiled pleasantly up at her. "Are you here to see Jessica?"

"Yes, it's urgent," Donna replied with only a hint of her usual cheerfulness present. Her eyes flicked over to Jessica's office where she wished to by-step Julie and head straight in, but she was stopped only by the client that was currently meeting with her.

"Hmm….well, she is pretty booked up for the day. After the meeting, she's due over at the courthouse to watch a press conference…."

"I need to see her as soon as – now," Donna replied, noticing the client had stood up from her seat as they clearly went through their final promises and farewells.

"Well, Jessica is _busy_," the other secretary replied. "Just because you can get the other senior partners to bend to your will doesn't mea – "

Donna had already put the secretary from her mind and stepped up when Jessica opened the door for her client. The older woman tilted her head in curiosity at Harvey's secretary so very impatiently standing and wishing to be addressed and she had enough dealings with her to know that Donna did not forgo formalities with her unless the situation was serious. Or Harvey needed something that he didn't think he could get on his own.

"Donna, what's going on?"

"I need to speak with you. It's urgent."

"Come on in," the older woman waved her through and gave a pointed look to Julie, who scowled sullenly at Donna's back as she walked in.

"What must you need to speak to me about that it could not wait?" Jessica asked and the secretary was at least relieved to see Jessica seemed more amused by her insistence rather than annoyed.

"Harvey is missing. He and Mike attended lunch with a client and they have not come back. It's been over an hour since they should have returned."

Jessica frowned. "You've called?"

"Both of them. No answer."

"Hmm...that is unusual. What were they supposed to do after the lunch?"

"Come back here and draw up a contract for the client. Harvey was supposed to have another client coming in at 2:30, but I had to reschedule it."

Jessica knitted her eyebrow in confusion, mulling over this new information before she answered, "I guess you should keep calling, but you definitely need to start considering filing a missing persons report. It's a shame they don't let you do those until twenty-four hours after the person has been missing."

"A good thing that I still have contacts in the police department. I'm going to go to them."

"Please do that and keep me informed of any updates."

"I will," Donna replied with a nod and started out the door, pulling out her cell phone to call Ray to pick her up in front of the building.

In the elevator, she began to rethink what she was about to do and not for the first time. They had only been gone for a handful of hours at best. Really, truly, honestly, perhaps it was nothing at all and her concern was completely unfounded, for which Harvey would mercilessly tease her for it later. On the other hand, she had been Harvey's secretary for more than ten years and she could not think of a single circumstance where Harvey altered his schedule _without_ informing her. He _never_ did that. He was not a spontaneous person who had whims that could change his direction at the drop of a dime. He was measured, punctual, and controlling – of his own life.

She nodded to herself. Yes, she was doing the right thing and she would be more than willing to get teased the rest of her life if it meant making sure both of her boys were safe.

~+.Suits.+~

"Hey, we're alive and that's what's really important," Harvey said to him from the containers door where he had his ear pressed against it as though he were hoping to hear the vibrations of someone approaching.

"Except now we get to starve to death."

"You'd rather be shot?" Harvey asked, raising his eyebrows at him in surprise.

"Well, it's a lot cleaner way to go than _starving_."

"Jesus, kid, we're going to get out! It's not like they dropped us in the middle of shark-infested waters. Someone will come by and if we raise enough of a racket, then they'll probably find us."

"I can't believe you're assuring me, as if you were some bastion of optimism."

"Well, believe it or not, I don't want to die! I have a good and meaningful life and I would like to live to its natural end. Besides, if he was so confident that we wouldn't be found, he would have left the body."

Mike snorted as he leaned against the wall of the container, disregarding the fact that he was getting his suit dirty. "How is that an indicator that we're going to be found?"

"Because if there's no body, then he can't go to jail for murder. Witness testimony only goes so far. They need a body, so he hid the body somewhere else." Harvey said with a confident smirk.

"Well, I'm glad you find that a pleasing fact. Where do you think he hid it?"

"Probably in the river. That seems to be _modus operandi_ with criminals like Lucio," Harvey replied off-handedly, having returned with his ear fixed to the door.

His head drooped sullenly and he pinched his eyes as though he were in pain. "Poor Mr. Lombardi. No one deserves that," he suddenly said.

Harvey shrugged. "Yes, tragic, but I'd rather focus on our problems."

"We can't even take a moment of silence for him?"

"What does it matter to you? You barely knew the guy! It's not like you chatted it up like you were old friends at lunch. He completely ignored you!"

"You don't find it sad that a human life was violently taken from this world?"

Harvey gave him a bland look. "You're talking to me like I'm supposed to be a Care Bear, the name of which uses my least favorite word. Add to that that I have _very_ little sympathy for someone who drags innocent bystanders into situations like this. So no, no I don't really feel sorry for Mr. Lombardi."

Mike sighed and shook his head. He should have figured Harvey would hold such a disdainful view about someone who had been shot right in front of them, but he admitted even so himself that he felt more than a little resentful for the man as well. Would he ever see his grammy again? It seemed like the forces were aligned against him either doing well or living to an old age.

_BOOM!_

The associated jumped a foot in the air and whirled around to Harvey, looking for the car that had apparently run into them. What he saw instead, was the older lawyer stepping back a few paces and then throwing his shoulder against the door.

_BOOM!_

"Harvey, what are you doing? Stop that!"

He only stopped for a moment to give Mike an exasperated look before he lowered his shoulder and slammed into the door again.

"You're never going to get that door open. All you're going to accomplish is giving yourself a sore shoulder."

"I'm not trying to get the door open," Harvey replied, collecting himself for another run at the door. _BOOM! _"I'm hoping someone will hear this."

Mike gave him an inane stare. "You're kidding right? I'm starting to get a different picture of you Harvey, and it's not the smooth, cunning lawyer I originally met."

"Oh, knock it off, Mike. You won't be complaining if it gets us out of here alive." Harvey stopped shouldering the door to take off his suit jacket, tossing it onto Mike without even looking. Then he wound up and did it again.

_BOOM!_

This continued for some time until Harvey stopped with a grimace and a roll of his shoulder, his bad one. Mike had already slid from leaning against the wall to sitting against it and Harvey joined him, sitting close enough that their shoulders were barely an inch apart.

The silence stretched between them, each of them too lost in their own thoughts to bother thinking of anything to speak aloud.

Mike was personally rejoicing that he wouldn't need to do the contracts Louis had given him before lunch. He also wouldn't have to worry about missing yet another night's sleep hunched over his desk, but he wouldn't be able to sleep in his own bed either. Or collapse on the couch with a beer and read Plato, which was his version of escapism from law. He couldn't call Jenny over for a dinner which would hopefully lead to a make out session and more.

By contrast, there was nothing to do here! As much thinking as he did on a daily basis, it was hardly enough to keep him distracted for long. He glanced over at Harvey, only to find his boss seemed to be completely oblivious to his boredom and continued staring at the wall. Mike sighed and banged his head against the wall in frustration.

This shook Harvey out of his thoughts and he glanced over at his associate in annoyance.

"What time is it?" Mike asked, unable to take the silence any longer.

"What does it matter?"

"Just because. Please? I want to know."

Harvey obliged him, but not without giving him a disapproving glare, like he was a petulant child. "It's 2 o'clock. Donna will have noticed by now that we're missing."

"You think so?"

"Now, Mike, I know you're late to work every day, but have you ever seen me late for a client meeting?"

Mike rolled his eyes. "No, I haven't."

"That's right. Donna knew I was supposed to be back to draw up a contract for our client before I was going to meet another client at 2:30. Ergo, Donna would know by now that something must be wrong. With any luck, she's telling her cop buddies about it right now."

The associate perked up. "Oh yeah, you two worked at the DA's office. Now I am hopeful that we might be found."

Harvey smirked at him. "You had doubt in Donna? I'm telling when we get back."

"You tell her that and I'll tell her you said she was stupid!"

The smirk transformed into a frown and Harvey actually turned to look at him, "Hey, I was trying to spare her in case they were interested in finding her. She would understand."

"She can handle him," Mike replied with a sage nod.

"Hmmm"

Mike abruptly yawned widely and he shook his head to stay awake, blinking stupidly in the dim light.

"You should just go ahead and take a nap. I can't exactly fire you for sleeping on the job when we're stuck here."

"What if we get rescued?"

"If we get rescued and you're still asleep, then I'll leave you here. What do you think I'm going to do? When I talked them out of shooting me, I managed to save you too. Might as well take you along."

Mike scowled at Harvey's response, though he would agree in hindsight that it was a rather stupid question. He shifted so that he could slouch against the wall and tried to quell the panicky fluttering of his heart that still had not gone away. It took several minutes, but he eventually managed to coax his body to relax.

Harvey knew when Mike fell asleep because something knocked his shoulder; he looked down on it in irritation. Naturally, his associate would slump into him and pillow his shoulder because that's just the sort of thing he would do. Now, he couldn't get up to move, stretch, pace or whatever he felt like doing to work off the nervous energy.

Waking the puppy was not an option because then he would have a cranky and irritating puppy and in such close quarters, he might not be able to resist strangling him. Resigning himself to being Mike's pillow, he decided he might as well catch up on some much needed sleep as well. Once he closed his eyes, it didn't take long for him to fall asleep either.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, Donna's alerted. I wonder how long it will take to find the boys. <strong>

**Thank you for reading, and all of your reviews, favorite, and alerts! I really appreciate it. =)**


	4. Informed

**Author's Note: **Thank you all so much for your reading, putting this on your alerts and reviewing! You all are so wonderful. I got a bad cold over the weekend, so this chapter is a little short. Sorry! I will try my best to get the next chapter up quickly!

Also season 1 of Suits is re-airing on USA, starting Thursday with the Pilot at 11/10 c. Now I finally get to see the Pilot!

**Informed**

It was a typical day in the precinct. The area buzzed with the voices of people and the ringing of phones as detectives hurried to close up their cases and follow the loose threads in others. Roy Summers, a lean, half-shaven man just teetering on the line of middle-aged, was just writing up the finishing touches on a case that was not going to go anywhere near trial. They almost never did and it was for this reason, Summer's loyalty to the system had long transformed into complete and utter dissatisfaction with his job.

_Christ, I'm not even of age to have my mid-life crisis, _he thought, punctuating the thought with a rather vigorous period to end the report. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind head, wincing at the rattle of pops in his back.

For once, he did not have a single pending case on his desk, but he knew that was not going to last more than five minutes. He decided it was time for a Diet Coke and was just pushing himself out of his chair when his phone rang. _Of course_, he thought with a roll of his eyes, but he nonetheless answered in his usual professional tone, "This is Detective Roy Summers. How may I help you?"

"Hello, Roy."

His eyes widened and he turned in his chair so that he was leaning over his desk. "Donna."

"It's been a long time. I'm surprised you remember me."

Roy drew his mouth into a line. It had been three years since he lasted talked to her and even longer since he last saw her, but she was a hard woman to forget. A fiery and sassy assistant of all people but to top it off, she had been the most beautiful in the whole damned building. The entire department mourned the loss when the greatest eye candy to liven up the daily grind had walked off with a corporate shill.

"What do you want, Donna?"

"I am ready to cash in on my favor."

Summers winced again. He was starting to hope that he'd never have to pay that back, but even back then, Donna had a meticulous network of people and she never forgot who owed her.

"I'm in the middle of closing up a case."

"Well, consider this your new case."

"Donna, I –"

"I will not take no for an answer! Meet me in the coffee shop across the street in fifteen minutes."

Summers sighed in resignation and pulled his coat off the chair and around his shoulders. He distinctly remembered this about her too: what Donna wants, Donna gets.

**~+.Suits.+~**

She was easily the most notable person in the place, even when she was sitting at a table in the corner. Overcome by the wonderful aroma of coffee, Summers ordered one and headed straight over.

"All right, Donna, let's get down to it. What do you want?" He had never been one to mince words.

"Glad you could join me, Roy," Donna replied quite calmly as if he had had any other alternative. "Anyway, I have a new case for you. It concerns Harvey Specter."

Summers couldn't keep from groaning and rubbing his tired eyes. If there was one person even less forgettable than Donna, it was Harvey goddamn Specter. He never knew the man especially well, but simply remembered his impossibly high standards and rather frequent bitch sessions as he chewed out the detectives on their 'shoddy' work. The only good quality Summers could honestly grant him was that he closed more cases than any man before him and he did with dignity, unlike that asshole Dennis Cameron. The man had a way with words and he could sell the jury anything, but it still didn't cover the fact that he was a smug bastard who had run off to make millions babying corporation's money problems.

He saw him at least once a month in passing at the courthouse and he was not surprised to hear the lawyer had long since been given the title of best closer in New York City. Harvey was just another reason to prove there was no justice in the world.

"What's he done now?"

"First off, I would like you to cut the attitude," Donna replied. "You act like he's a playboy you've had to pick up every weekend for public intoxication."

Summers grudgingly nodded and bit his tongue. She had a point – as far as he knew Harvey had never come from money and the spoiled rich boy act was definitely not one he'd associate with a lawyer who worked as hard as he did. "All right, I'm listening."

"Harvey is missing."

The detective pinched his eyes again. "Go on."

"He was having lunch with a client and he was supposed to be back by one. He's not called and he has obviously not answered any calls. I don't want to wait for the missing persons deadline," she said, with a meaningful look.

Summers glanced at his watch: 3 o'clock. Yes, two hours was bordering on worrisome. While New York traffic was horrendous, traffic jams rarely lasted two hours, especially during the work week.

"I don't know, Donna. Could it be the battery in his phone died?"

She feigned a look of contemplation. "Oh yes, it's possible his phone died. But it would be highly improbable for his associate's and client's phones to have died too!"

"That's still not impossible," Summers said with a shake of his head.

Donna only continued to regard him with an annoyed glare and with an inward sigh, he moved on, "He could've changed the schedule and done or gone somewhere else."

She giggled mockingly at the suggestion. "Oh, Roy, do you remember Harvey at all? Even back then he was strictly by the schedule and since I'm his secretary, he would know better than to not inform me!"

The detective acknowledged the comment with a slight nod, but after a moment's silence he said, "Donna, there is really nothing to suggest that there's anything criminal happening. You could be getting worked up over nothing."

"You're right. It's probably nothing," Donna said. Summer's victorious smile was short-lived however when he saw her eyes narrow intently at him. "But I want you to look into it anyway! If you find Harvey did indeed take a detour to a strip club and downed shots this whole time, I will kick his ass and your debt will still be paid."

She paused to let him soak in her words before continuing, tapping a fingernail to the table with every word. "But if it's not, the police need to start finding him right now!"

Before he could put in a word edgewise, she dug out a photograph from her purse and pointed to it as if it was of utmost importance. "See this woman?" She asked, pointing at a smiling old lady sitting with a young man. "Her name is Emma Ross. This man here is her grandson, Mike Ross. He's Harvey's associate and he went with Harvey to lunch. Mike is the only family this woman has left. If you can't do this for Harvey, at least do this for her and her grandson."

God damn Donna for knowing which buttons to press.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh Donna and her network of people. <strong>**Thanks again for all of you for reading and reviewing. =)**


	5. Adapted

**Author's Note: Good evening, everybody. Here's another chapter for your reading pleasure. I'm going to try to get these out at a steady pace. I also wanted to mention over from last chapter that, even with the detective, this is not going to be like an episode of Law & Order with a step-by-step of every single road they take, though I will do my best to make sure the results make sense. =)**

**Thank you so much for the reviews! I'm glad to hear you're all enjoying the story. Here's another chapter of Harvey and Mike!**

**Adapted**

When Mike woke up, he was a little puzzled to feel like his head was caught in a vice. After glancing around, the events of the last few hours caught up to him. The light had considerably dimmed since he fell asleep. Then he tilted his head to figure out just what he could possibly be leaning on when he saw a hand at the end of a black sleeve. His eyes widened and he glanced up and tried to lift his head experimentally. A smile was beginning to pull at his mouth. He had fallen asleep against Harvey, but Harvey had fallen asleep on him! He'd never let him live this down!

Mike lifted his head again, slowly hoping to squeeze out from underneath Harvey without waking him, but then the weight disappeared and Mike gladly sat up, wincing as his neck cracked. Then he looked over at Harvey and grinned as he watched the older lawyer blink himself awake and then he turned to look at Mike with a scowl.

"Don't say it."

"You definitely fell asleep on me."

"You fell asleep on me!"

"I'm not the one who supposedly doesn't care!"

"You make a more comfortable pillow than the wall."

"You keep telling yourself that's the reason you were lying against me."

"I will because it's true."

Another silence fell between them.

Harvey could already feel the chill of night settling in as the sun sunk lower in the sky. It may have been an unseasonably warm winter, but the nights still managed to drop to frigid temperatures and neither one of them had coats on. There really was no need to have them when the only time they usually spent outside was to run back and forth between cars and buildings. The lawyer could already see an unpleasant night ahead for the both of them.

His musings were disturbed when he noticed Mike shifting in a peculiar way. It was like he was trying to hide whatever was bothering but couldn't actually suppress it. After a couple of minutes continuing to observe unobtrusively, he finally spoke to break the silence for lack of anything better to do, "What's wrong, pup? You look like you have ants in your pants."

Mike sighed in exasperation, refusing to look at him. When he did catch his eye, his associate looked away, embarrassed. Harvey gave him a puzzled frown. "What?"

He hesitated a moment more and said, "I have to pee."

Harvey snorted, shook his head, and then shrugged helplessly. "You might as well go. I seriously doubt we'll be rescued in the next hour. Holding it would be pointless." When all Harvey heard in return as silence, he turned to Mike again, who was staring at him in disbelief. "What?"

"I'm not so sure you're Harvey Specter anymore."

"Really? I'd be fascinated to hear your reasons." Honestly, he was just humoring the kid because there was nothing else to do.

"Because Harvey Specter is clean and finicky. He would never deign to sit near human waste, let alone his own."

"Do you really have to address me in the third person? I am also a pragmatist and while peeing in a place that's only twelve feet from where I'm sitting is disgusting," and here Harvey shuddered at the thought, "trying to hold it is not only unrealistic, but stupid. Now, will you go? I'd like to as well before the sun sets."

Mike sighed, but shakily climbed to his feet and headed to the far end of the shipping container. Harvey did his best to ignore him and he only turned when Mike sat back down, looking rather perturbed. Harvey raised his eyebrows in a question and his associate said, "It's still gross. I don't think I'll get used to the idea, but I'm not going to hold it in anticipation of being rescued."

"Of course you don't. Even you have a stupidity quota," Harvey replied. Then suddenly he narrowed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling as he thought before he finished, "I think."

"Haha."

Harvey winced as he got to his feet, feeling the bones in his back crack and the aching stiffness in his knees and shoulders. He was too old to be sitting for hours in a metal container. He glanced out the little window but could only see the dark surroundings of all the other shipping containers and just a little more than a sliver of the sky. As far as he could tell, not a single living thing had stepped into the scene and shivered ever so slightly at the implications. Would they ever get out of here?

_Yes, _he said to himself. _Mike and I are going to get out. Donna _will_ find us. Somehow. I can always count on her._

He stepped over to the far corner to relieve himself as well and when he returned he could not help but notice that Mike had curled up, hugging his knees to himself as he shivered.

When his associate saw him walking past he said, "Damn, I'm cold. And hungry. This sucks."

"I know, kid. We'll get out of here though. Donna will find us."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because it's Donna and she can always be counted on," Harvey replied. The whole time he had been keeping his confident mask on, but as the temperature continued to drop he started shivering as well and couldn't resist hugging himself to try and stay warm.

"I hope so, Harvey. I hope she's here first thing tomorrow morning."

"Well, I…don't know how likely that's going to be."

"…with coffee and donuts…"

"Okay, shut up before you make yourself any hungrier than you already are! Food and drink are a banned topic."

"What are you? Big Brother?"

"I'm just trying to keep us from being more miserable than we already are!"

"Fine! I won't talk about…those things," Mike grumbled and he fell into silence.

Harvey wanted to sigh in frustration. They hadn't even been holed up for twelve hours and already the ordeal had become agonizing through a mixture of hunger, thirst, and captivity. He was doing his best to keep his own temper from flaring up and taking out his annoyance on his associate, but Mike's mood was also clearly affected by the hunger, especially since they had absolutely nothing to distract themselves from the situation. He might have to think of _something_ to do tomorrow to keep them both active.

For now, though, the sun had set and he could only just make out Mike's silhouette sitting right next to him. He couldn't even see the other wall of the shipping container that wasn't more than six feet away, so trying to do anything in this darkness was bound to be nothing short of awkward. Just then Mike sucked in a trembling breath and the lawyer focused on it. He had been a Boy Scout and even had his training in basic first aid, so it was with some exasperation that he realized that ignoring the affects of the cold was only going to make everything worse.

Sighing inwardly in resignation, Harvey reached out tentatively in the vicinity of Mike's shoulder before he finally settled on it and latched on. "Hey, you should wear my jacket."

"I'm fine."

"Pup, it may be pitch black in here, but I can still read you like a book."

"Oh, so you have night vision?"

"Cut the sarcasm, Mike. Even though there's no snow on the ground and the days have been pretty warm, it's still winter. The nights are cold. You must have read something regarding the symptoms of hypothermia."

"Yes…" The answer was cautious as though the associate had an idea of where Harvey was going with this, but couldn't seem to believe it.

And Harvey couldn't quite believe what he was about to do either, but if they were going to survive then it had to be done. He had, after all, promised Mike that they were going to get out of the situation alive and because Mike was his responsibility, it had to be done. "Sharing body heat is the best way to beat hypothermia."

There was a long silence as the lawyer waited. Finally Mike said, "I never expected you to be much of a cuddler, Harvey. Is this special treatment or do all your dates get this?"

"Well, I promised this girl we would get out alive…" He chuckled when Mike socked him in the area of his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, I know the rules of surviving hypothermia. So how do you want to do this?"

Why don't you…sit in my lap. I give you permission to use me as a pillow."

"Holy awkward, Batman," Mike said, fumbling to find precisely where he needed to go before he finally latched onto Harvey's knee and worked his way around it.

Harvey couldn't keep from snorting with laughter and he reached over to grab Mike around the middle and pull him down. There was another minute of long limb entanglement and awkward settling before Mike was finally settled against Harvey who had his arms wrapped around him in a near bear hug, trying to get him warm and get warmed in return. The lawyer reached over to where his suit jacket was and threw it over Mike in as close approximation to a blanket as he could get.

"Are you sure you don't want your jacket?"

"I'm not the one with the body mass of a streetlight."

"I'm not that skinny!"

"Yes, you are. Oh and this will not be spoken of in the office."

"Agreed."

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed the chapter! The poor boys though. =(<strong>


	6. Investigated

**Author's Note: I hope you all had a good weekend! Thank you for reading and reviewing once more. You guys are great! =) Thank you for your support. **

**I'm glad you're all enjoying the story and I hope you continue to enjoy it. ^^**

**Investigated**

Detective Summers opened the door to Harvey Specter's apartment and couldn't keep from gaping at what he saw – the most amazing view of New York City itself. The entire wall facing out to the city was pure glass and when he scanned the room, he noticed a private glass elevator in the corner.

Donna had given him a key to both men's apartments, the name of the restaurant they had lunch at and the client they had lunch with. He decided the best places to start were the homes and that was how he found himself standing in the entrance of Harvey's condo.

_All right,_ he conceded, _there's no way in hell Harvey could have afforded this if he had remained an ADA. _

But even more surprising than the views was how immaculately clean the space was kept. Summer's own apartment often had shirts and ties hanging over various pieces of furniture and doors, or even just crumpled in a heap on the floor. Harvey's condo, by contrast, was so neat it didn't look like anyone actually lived there. The only sign of life that he could see was when he opened the dishwasher and found a few dirty dishes.

_He must have a maid of some sort, because no man who calls himself a bachelor would have a pad this clean, _he thought as he stepped into the bedroom and gave it a cursory glance. Everywhere he looked was neat and tidy, even the master bath, as though it were on the market.

Harvey certainly hadn't been back here and no enemy of his had turned the place over. He let himself out and prepared to go to the associate, Mike Ross', apartment.

It was much to his surprise when he pulled up in front of Mr. Ross' apartment on the slummy side of town. He was pretty damn certain no Harvard grad would ever deign to set foot in a place like this, but according to the little slip of paper Donna gave him, the address was correct. Inside, the hallways were narrow and dark and with every step he felt the floor flex and heard it groan, causing the detective to briefly wonder if the building was even up to code.

Summers was equally amazed at Mr. Ross' apartment as he had been Harvey's, but this was amazement of a different kind. Much like the hallways, the space was drab and dark. The area also felt like it was in utter chaos, as the detective noticed the clothes lying on the floor, the half-made bed, an empty but used coffee pot and mug sitting out, and scads of books on every available surface.

_How did these two men end up working together? _Summers thought as he opened Mr. Ross' refrigerator to find it empty of all but a half gallon of milk. _Not working together, _Summers amended, _but this guy was _hired_ by Harvey_. There was clearly a lot more to the smug, arrogant asshole Harvey Specter than he had originally thought.

Even so, there was nothing either here or at Harvey's condo to suggest that they either stopped by here or that someone was possibly searching for them or something else regarding them.

The detective locked the apartment back up and frowned in puzzlement as he mulled over what he knew. His next course of action should probably to follow up on the restaurant, and then he should probably interview Harvey's own driver – what was his name? Ray, Ross, Rick? He would have to call in some favors to get Harvey's and his associate's phones and credit cards tapped, though he still wondered if it wasn't still just a dead battery that was causing Donna to freak out –

_Briiiiing!_

Summers jumped at the too loud sound of his phone going off in the quiet hallway and he quickly fished it out. _Speak of the Devil..._ "Donna," he answered as he trumped down the stairs. "Well, there's no sign that they were ever at their homes."

"I could have told you that! Did you think I didn't check first before calling you?" She asked with an exasperated tone.

He froze. "You did what? You didn't touch anything, did you?"

"Of course not! I'm not stupid, Roy," she said. He could just imagine the fire in her eyes and her red hair fanning around her shoulders with the power of her fury. He thanked God that she wasn't present to ream him. "I stood in the doorway and called their names. That was sufficient enough proof for me."

"Well then, I'm sure you'll be unsurprised to hear that I have determined that there is no evidence to suggest that they had been there, that anyone else had been there, and it certainly does not appear that their apartments were turned over in search of something."

"I could have told you that," Donna replied but there was no real heat in her voice.

"At any rate, I was just thinking of what I should do next. I'm going to go to the restaurant and see if anyone remembers seeing them there and possibly see wherever they went afterward. I should probably call in my phone and credit card taps before my friends call it a night."

"Don't worry about the credit cards. I've got Harvey's finances covered. I haven't seen any charges yet."

"Good. I'll call in the phone taps in and hopefully we can trace their next call. Then I'd like to speak to Harvey's driver. What's hi-?"

"You mean Ray?"

"Yes, him. You said he dropped Harvey and Mike off at the restaurant?"

"Uhh…yeah. Why do you want to question him? You don't think he's suspect, do you?"

"I'm not even sure Harvey and your associate, Mr. Ross, are even missing yet, Donna. I'm just covering all my bases."

She sighed heavily. "Well, just let me say that Ray is very loyal. He wouldn't do anything to harm Harvey or Mike."

"I'll make that judgment, Donna. I'd like to get to the restaurant before the shift change."

"Fine. By the way, I looked up all the former clients Harvey's had who might try to harm him or Mike. I'll just e-mail that to you."

"Great. I'll go over the list tonight. See if any of them have criminal records and then call the suspicious ones tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll fill out the Missing Persons papers and file them the minute it turns noon tomorrow."

"Fine. That should open a few more resources when I actually find a lead to follow."

There was a moment of silence. Summers had a feeling that there was something she wished to say, but couldn't voice it because of the horrible implications. "Hey, we're going to find them. People don't just disappear without a trace, especially when they're people like Harvey."

She chuckled, but for a second there, much to his surprise, he heard what might have been a choked sob. Summers may not have seen her in several years, but crying over small things was not a part of Donna's legendary reputation. In the next instant, he was certain he'd been mistaken as she said, "Yes, I can't see Harvey going out with a whimper. He might be dumb enough to get himself shot though." He could hear the cold fury in her voice at the thought and wondered, when Harvey and his associate were found, if he would have to file murder charges on their behalf after Donna got through with them. And he was amazed once more that Harvey would put up with a person like her.

"We'll find them, Donna. I'm sure of it." With that he ended the call and ducked into his car. He needed to get to that restaurant before the shift change.

**~+.Suits.+~**

Donna hung up with a long sigh and she rubbed the bridge of her nose. _Damn it, Harvey, you're going to give me gray hairs before I turn forty! Why do I put up with you? _She heard the elevator ding and her eyes shot open, only to see Louis step in her line of vision and head the other way down the hall.

_Crap! _She had been doing that every single time she heard the elevator and she had a feeling she was going to develop chronic whiplash if the boys did not arrive within the next hour. That was a chiropractor appointment that Harvey was going to be billed for when he finally sauntered into the office.

She glanced back behind her longingly at the spacious office, able to see in her minds eyes, Harvey standing at the window, staring pensively at the view below him. She could hear the soft jazz tune he would start playing at times like this. This had always been one of her favorite times of day because Harvey's mask seemed to melt away and she would see the man who was normally hidden behind the intolerably smug condescension – not that it was ever directed at her.

Such moments were rare, but she thought they might be a hair more frequent now that the puppy had entered their lives. She found Mike to be an enigma and not just in regards to his history, but in the feelings that he invoked in her. His genuine naivety inspired mixed feelings of it being both adorable and terrifying, the latter of which made her heart flutter in fear when she thought of how that strange innocence and gullibility might one day be ripped mercilessly from him. She would happily gut whoever did that to him, but probably not before Harvey found a way to tear their entire life apart.

For all of his bitching about Mike's feelings, Donna knew that the closer would instinctively try to shield Mike from the ugliest situations. While Mike had a tendency to arise motherly feelings out of Donna, he caused Harvey's long buried brotherly instincts to rise to the surface. How that kid managed to worm his way into their team, she didn't know, but he was here to stay.

Donna was just clicking send to e-mail Summers the document she drew up of Harvey's most unsatisfied clients when she felt a presence fall over her and she glanced up.

"No luck, I presume?" Jessica asked, standing tall above the secretary.

Donna shook her head. "Nothing." She sighed in frustration and couldn't keep the look of worry from her face. "No phone calls, they never went back to their apartments. It's like they disappeared without a trace."

Jessica gave her a sad smile, but she reached over to pat her gently on the wrist. "Try not to worry too much, Donna. We'll find them."

The secretary nodded, attempting to be confident. She forcefully banished the accumulating frustration, fear, and doubt that had been slowly building up throughout the day. Getting worked up would do nothing to bring them back.

"Now, is there anything you need me to do? Should I give my PI a call? Do you need any favors?"

Donna raised her eyebrows at Jessica, surprised that she was ceding the complete control of the investigation to her. She thought about the suggestion for a minute and then she shook her head. "I thought about calling mine – well, Harvey's – but I've already got a senior detective on the case. I seriously doubt a PI could follow the leads any faster or further than him. He's good, so I trust he will find Harvey and Mike."

"Very well. Keep me updated," Jessica replied.

"I will," Donna said and with that, Jessica walked off and the secretary started to mull over the next thing she should do, but the list was coming up extremely short. Go looking for them? She had no idea at all where Harvey could possibly disappear to. His condo was his go to haven and then, if not his condo, probably one of a handful of bars. Yes, perhaps she could start there, but the voice of reason in her head also kept reminding her that there was no instance of Harvey ever just _disappearing_ and not informing her of what he was doing. And would he honestly cut off work to go do something with Mike? She knew he liked the kid, but also seemed to be a big proponent of being a good role model and ditching work was hardly the makings of a good lawyer.

_Damn it, _she thought again as she rubbed at her forehead. She would drop by the bars, if only to satisfy her curiosity and need to do something, even if she knew that she was wasting her time.

* * *

><p><strong>Poor Donna and having to worry so much about Harvey and Mike. Hopefully she won't murder them when she finally finds them, but she wouldn't have to worry about them if she did. ^_~<strong>

**Thank you again, everyone! =)**


	7. Occupied

**Author's Note: Thank you all so much for your feedback. It really made me smile. =) And on that note, I'm sorry for the long wait on this chapter, so I made it long to make up for it. I hope it's not boring. XP Thank you again for reading and review, and I hope you enjoy!**

**Occupied**

Harvey was slow to wake up in the next morning. He was typically bright and alert by 5:30, but even accounting for the later sunrises, the grey light of dawn was already filtering into the shipping container. He bit his lip to keep from groaning as he tried to shift his weight from the sore spots that he was going to develop. A pack of wild bulls couldn't drag it out of him, but he found their huddling to be fairly comfortable and a welcome break from the cold, hard shipping container. However, his lower back was starting to ache fiercely at having to sit on and against a hard surface for so long. His shoulders, particularly his right were stiff from leaning over onto Mike's shoulder. His chin was resting on the associate's and his arms were now loosely wrapped around his warm body. Maybe too warm. He frowned in concern, considering for a moment of taking the pup's temperature, but at the risk of waking him up, he decided against it. No matter if he was sick or not, the kid would need his rest, so he settled for just letting him wake up naturally.

_Damn, I was hoping this had ended up being a nightmare, _he thought, staring longingly at the little windows as the only source of light. He had really been hoping this debacle wouldn't last more than a few hours, but now that they had gone a full night without hearing so much as a car engine, he was really starting to get concerned. They couldn't possibly last more than five days out here with no food and especially no water. However, Donna had an uncanny ability to work miracles and if he knew her, she was pulling every favor she had in the police department.

If she could. As much as Harvey tried to brush away Lucio's threat as a bluff it was ominous enough in its intent to make him fret. Without a doubt, lawyers attracted a lot of wounded, vengeful people, but thankfully those attacks tended to narrow the focus on the crux of the problem rather than the broad network that created it. There was really only one instance in his career where a client actually attacked Donna. That had not ended well…for the client. Just the one incident though and it made Harvey Specter paranoid for life about Donna's safety.

Mike suddenly stirred, jolting Harvey from his thoughts and causing him to loosen his arms around him. The associate shifted, stretched his legs, and then chuckled

"What's so funny?" Harvey asked, a tad too defensively.

"You spent the whole night hugging me like a teddy bear. I can just imagine you were one of those kids who had a stuffed animal they lugged around everywhere."

"This is coming from a guy who probably sucked his thumb until he was five," Harvey shot back. He struggled to keep his laughter stifled at the stiff silence he received. "Don't you dare read into this, pup. I'm trying to keep us both warm, with you as my primary responsibility."

"Say what you will. You clearly, so very obviously care."

"I have spent a full half year mentoring you. You know how much I would sincerely hate for all that time and effort to go to waste if you died? Jessica would never let me forget it and Donna would be pissed for breaking my toys."

Mike chuckled but cried out in indignity, "I'm not a toy! A toy doesn't even come close to being as awesome at research as I am."

"So my computer. The point is I can't just go out and buy a new one." Harvey was fairly certain he could see Mike rolling his eyes.

"You're in denial. Don't worry. I'm convinced you'll come out of the closet one day."

"What? I'm not gay."

This time Mike couldn't keep from giggling uncontrollably. "Yeah, I think it's safe to say you're not gay. I meant you're in the closet about being human."

"That's a no go as well because, right now, my humanity is telling me I really need to pee, so…"

Mike scrambled away so fast it looked as if Harvey mentioned contracting the plague. The closer smirked at Mike, but when he attempted to get up, it transformed into a frown. His knees felt locked into place and his right shoulder was practically glued, but he eventually managed to get his feet underneath him.

His associate watched him with a bemused expression and then he raised an eyebrow and asked, "Need help, old man?"

Harvey scowled. "I will bury you in paperwork when we get back."

"I offered help!"

"You did not have to call me 'old man.' And I clearly didn't need your help," he replied as he finally stood and stretched, and then he rubbed and rolled at his injured shoulder to loosen it up. He finally headed down to the far end of the shipping container to relieve himself again.

Mike followed after him and returned to slump down against the wall again, but Harvey stayed on his feet. He paced their end of the container, shaking out his legs, and trying to rub the soreness out of his shoulder and back.

Harvey noticed Mike sitting rigidly and said, "You know, you'll feel better if you stretch your legs."

"I'll feel better once I get a full meal," Mike grumbled. When he glanced up he saw Harvey's glare and sighed. "I promise not to talk food anymore…but I'm just so hungry!" As if to emphasize his point, they both heard his stomach growl.

"I'm hungry too, pup, but it really is best not to think about it."

"Well, if I had a stack of briefs to do, I'd be okay," Harvey rolled his eyes, "but there's nothing to do here," Mike finished, throwing his hands up and then he glowered at the far wall.

Harvey was silent as he considered what Mike said. The kid had a point, the closer grudgingly granted. He considered just keeping a running stream of inane conversation, but that would hardly keep Mike, boy wonder's, attention for long. He needed a game or a puzzle…Harvey suddenly smirked as an idea came to him while he continued to pace.

"How about we play a game of sorts?"

"If it's 'I Spy,' I'm gonna kick your ass."

"I want to kick your ass for even suggesting it," Harvey replied, giving him another patent glare. "No, this would be a much more interesting game, invented by myself just now."

"Wouldn't be Calvinball, would it?"

Harvey grinned at the reference this time, but he hid his pleasure to a smirk before turning around to face Mike again. "As much as I would have loved to have played Calvinball…no. In this game, I think of a legal scenario and you will tell me how'd you find your way around it."

Mike perked up. "That does sound interesting. I get to learn more about the versatility of the law and you get to flex your mentorship chops."

Harvey chose to ignore his last sentence and immediately launched into a scenario. Unknown to Mike, it was his first case as a junior partner and he had been on the defense of a young stock broker who had claimed wrongful termination, of all things, due to reverse discrimination. In Harvey's quest to prove a case, he had even dug up a second and third person who claimed the same thing. The company had ended up being in the wrong after all, but it had later been uncovered that his first client had done some insider trading deals. A tricky case, but Harvey largely considered it a win, despite having to take a _slight_ pay cut by keeping his client out of jail through a severe reduction in the settlement. Harvey made damn sure that the first client made up much of the difference out of his own pocket, though.

It was with some pride that Harvey listened to Mike outline exactly how he had gone about solving the case to the client's advantage. He stumbled though when the closer brought up the insider trading charges and evidence.

He grimaced. "Obviously, after the charges, the one client would want to avoid prison, so you probably will go back to the company with a much smaller settlement because it's pretty much guaranteed that no one would want to go to court."

Harvey chuckled. "Yes, that's about as nicely as it can turn out. Remember, Mike, we don't get to pick our clients and, if we get a criminal, we can't just turn them in."

"I know, Harvey," Mike replied with a little more anger than necessary. Then he deflated and the anger was replaced by a sorrowful and hungry look.

Harvey let the outburst slide; no doubt hunger was affecting his mood. Instead, he ploughed on ahead to the next scenario, thinking of increasingly difficult ones as they went. Just as he had the day before, Harvey went to the container door and slammed his shoulder against it a few times in between game breaks. Mike surprised him on a few occasions with alternative solutions than what he was thinking, which often led to a debate of whose solution was the best. Harvey won most of the bouts and couldn't keep a smug smirk off his face as he took his seat next to Mike.

"Smirk all you want. You're supposed to win!"

This time it was Mike's turn to smile as the sentence wiped the smirk off of his boss' face.

The first silence since before they woke up fell between them, but it was not uncomfortable. Harvey was leaning against the container wall with his eyes closed and Mike was staring off into the distance. This continued for several minutes, until Mike inhaled a shuddering breath and broke it.

"Harvey…I've been meaning to bring this up for a while…"

"What, kid?" The closer still had his eyes closed.

"I, uh, I'm really sorry about failing with the assets split between Kelsey and Louis' client Madi – "

"Don't." Mike turned to look at him and winced at the grim expression on Harvey's face. "Don't finish that sentence, Mike. You don't owe me an apology for that. Our client did get her wish and, last time I checked, she's hanging in there."

"But I lost to Louis."

"Louis broke the rules! The rules he himself established before our little contest. He can claim the win all he wants, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not a win. Whatever you do in your legal career, Mike, don't lower yourself to his level."

"Yeah, that's never going to happen."

"I may manipulate the rules, find loopholes through them, and bend them, but I will not break them. That goes for the law."

Mike snorted. "I had to stop you from committing assault against Matt Bailey the next week."

"Well, you stopped me. If you hadn't, Donna would have killed me and then she would have walked, because no one would dare testify against her."

"You're welcome then. For saving your life," Mike said, laughter in his voice.

The silence fell again, but this time Mike struggled to his feet and began pacing the shipping container, stopping only briefly to lean over Harvey to peer outside.

"You don't need to stand on me to see outside. There's a window on the other side of the container."

"Where the hell are the people?"

"I don't know, Mike."

"Are you _certain_ Donna will find us?"

"Have you ever known Donna to fail at anything?"

"It's been almost two days!"

"Have I taught you anything, pup? These things take time. She still has to go through legal avenues to figure out where we are. You can't even file a missing person's report until 24 hours after they've gone missing. She was only just able to file it a little bit ago. I know we keep calling her goddess, but that doesn't mean she actually is one," Harvey said with a heavy sigh and a roll of his eyes.

"Oh crap!"

"What?"

"I think I forgot to give her my monthly offering of flowers."

"Shit. Now we're doomed."

"I can hear your sarcasm. This could be serious!"

"You're right. When she finds us, she's obviously going to save me and then she'll lock you back up in here to suffer. Give me a break, Mike."

"C'mon, I was just trying to lighten up the mood."

"Don't quit your day job."

"As if you'd let me quit…"

Mike suddenly turned away toward the door, took a running start and kicked it as hard as he could, causing a nice 'thump' sound that echoed among the containers.

"Kick it harder. I don't think the neighborhood quite heard you."

"Hey, that kick was better than any of the times you ran into the door with your shoulder."

"I have consistency. Try to keep that up."

The associate kicked the door and tried a few more times by running into it with his shoulder, but just as with Harvey's attempts no one came running to let them out. So with a defeated sigh, Mike sat back down next to Harvey and unashamedly pillowed Harvey's shoulder. The closer frowned severely at him, but refrained from saying anything. There really was no point. He glanced at his watch and winced as he saw it was only 2:30 in the afternoon. He would give anything to be at the office at that moment, even if it meant getting his ear talked off by Louis. He would happily let Donna drag him to see a chick flick if it meant getting out of the damned shipping container. He would gladly split half the alcohol in his office with Mike if he could just be sitting there right now, going over briefs, and listening to his records.

_"Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry, you don't know how lucky you are…_

Mike frowned and looked up at Harvey with an analytical expression as if he wasn't sure that Harvey was the one singing. The closer did not pay any attention to this and just sang the whole song through and when he finished he let his head fall against the container.

"Not a bad singing voice, but…what the hell brought this on? Miss your records?"

"Yes," Harvey replied and then a beat later. "I hated that song."

"So, is it like the Jame's Blunt's 'Beauiful?' 'You're beautiful?'" Mike spoke the last bit in a passable imitation of the singer.

"Stop right now or I may tear your throat out."

"So then why the hell did you sing it?"

"I hated that song. Donna loved it. So, of course, I heard it every day for at least two months."

"That definitely sounds like Donna."

"Then one day she caught me humming it, pointed out to me, and that was when I realized I actually liked the song. It's still no _Fool on the Hill._"

"Of course you like the Beatles."

"Are you implying you don't?"

"No, I just never hear them when you do put on your records."

_Boom!_

They both jumped and looked toward the ceiling. A second later they heard the tattoo of rain drops spattering against the ceiling until the rain shower grew into a downpour, creating a steady roar against the shipping containers around them.

"We should try to drink the raindrops." Harvey shivered as he felt one hit his free shoulder and then he felt several more hit his head.

Mike grimaced. "I can't believe we have to drink rain water to survive," he said, lifting his head up off of Harvey, who immediately jumped to his feet and leaned in as close to the window as he could.

"Mike, drink up! I don't need you dying of dehydration."

The associate shook his head and climbed to his feet, shaking his head as he watched Harvey actually slurping up water from the metal around the edge of the window.

"How does it taste?"

Harvey gave him a look that plainly said 'do I have to answer that question?' "Awful, but it's water!" The downpour was thick enough that much of the rain that blew into the window fell on his shoulders to soak through his shirt to his skin. Much like Mike, he found the fact that they were drinking rain water absolutely pathetic, but the ridiculousness of the situation seem only enhanced by his frustration that the stream through the window wasn't steadier which would make him feel better about his intake than whatever slid down the wall. And what he did drink tasted like metal and he just hoped to God that, if he survived the experience, that he wouldn't end up with some sort of metal poisoning from ingesting it.

Mike was at the other window opposite him trying to drink what he could but after a few minutes Harvey heard him whine, "Damn it! The water's soaking through my blazer."

"Put mine on then."

"You sure you don't need it?"

"I'm fine." Actually, he was starting to get much colder, now that the clouds obscured the sun and the rainstorm brought in even colder air than what they had suffered so far, but if the kid was chilled then he would need the extra layer. He was only skin and bones after all; Harvey could survive.

After several minutes of drinking, Harvey finally decided he'd had enough when he felt like the entire inside of his mouth was coated with metal and he sat down and slumped against the wall with a sour face. Mike had given up even before him and had sat next to where Harvey stood with a miserable look on his face as he hugged himself to keep warm.

"Come here, Mike. You need to stay warm."

Unlike last night, Mike didn't hesitate and he sat in Harvey's lap. When he felt Harvey shiver, he asked, "Are you sure you don't want your suit jacket? I mean, your shirt is soaked and it's cold."

"I'll be fine, Mike. You're the one with questionable weight here."

"It's not about whether your body can keep you warm, Harvey. Even you can't outlast the elements."

"Well, I'll have to if I want you to survive."

"I have two jackets. I can give you back yours."

"You were cold with your one jacket! Keep mine."

"All right, I will. I just…don't need you dying on me either, Harvey."

The closer chuckled and shook his head. "I have a feeling more people wish I were dead than alive. Don't worry about it. We'll be out of here before we can quite get that far."

"I hope you're right," Mike replied somberly. _Gram, I hope you're doing well. I should live to see you again, if Donna is as reliable as Harvey claims she is_. He had to bite his lip to keep from chuckling as he felt Harvey's head drop to his shoulder and he could hear his breathing evening out. There really wasn't much to do, so Mike decided to nap as well.

They both awoke sometime in the night to get up and go to the bathroom. The temperature had dropped even more as they slept and after Harvey returned, Mike could feel him shivering even more violently than earlier and he forced his coat on him.

"No, keep it, Mike. I'll be fine."

"Will you just take it already, Harvey? It's too cold not to have it."

Harvey obliged by putting it on and they curled up once more, trying to ignore the cold.

The closer realized that they had gotten to sleep only when they woke up.

_THUD!_

They're heads snapped up together as they felt the container shake and they turned to look at each other with a mixture of alarm and, in Mike's case, fear. It was then Harvey realized that he could actually see Mike. He glanced down at his watch: 4 a.m.

It was definitely night and he could see…Mike. Then they heard shouting of workman's orders and both of them leapt to their feet and peered out the window. People! Dockyard workers!

"Well, I don't think you have to worry about getting out of here now, pup."

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you again for reading. I'll try to have the next chapter out soon. =)<strong>

**Oh yes, I forgot to mention when I started this fic...**

**I do not own Suits or Coldplay. The song Harvey sings is 'The Scientist'**


	8. Tracked

**Author's Note: I apologize, again, for the wait, but I took my time writing this chapter to make sure I didn't get ahead of myself and reveal something I shouldn't. Oh semi-Mystery stories... I hope you'll forgive me, but we're getting closer to the climax. =3**

**Thank you all, again, for your wonderful feedback! It really brightens my day. ^^**

**Tracked**

Donna struggled to keep from yawning as she waited impatiently for noon to roll around. She had gone to bed last night and she wasn't sure she had slept a wink, as she worried over the boys. Every hour, just as she was beginning to drift off, she would swear she heard her phone ring, but each time it was just her imagination. Then the cycle would begin anew until she finally gave up on sleep at five in the morning.

Now that it was a whole day that they had been missing, panic was threatening to overwhelm her. This was now a very serious and potentially life-threatening situation for the boys – _If they're not already dead, _the little voice of her subconscious rebelliously said and she immediately stifled the thought – and she had to keep her head clear if she was going to bring them back alive.

_God, boys, I hope you're alive. And if you happen to be imprisoned somewhere together, I hope you're not driving each other up the wall. _They certainly hadn't been in a situation like this at all, but she knew that Mike would be over zealously panicky and Harvey would be short-tempered. It was a volatile combination and she was generally the one who kept them in order.

A shadow fell over her table and without even looking up from the report she was filling out she said, "So, any luck?"

"No. Almost everyone on that list you sent me have since gotten over whatever slight Harvey did to them. Gerald Tate was the most likely candidate for doing something nasty, but he seemed to have gotten enough satisfaction from firing the firm. Another damn dead end," Roy said as he finally sank into the chair opposite her, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He really didn't look like he'd gotten much more sleep than Donna.

"Gotten any hits on their cell phones?"

"Nothing so far. I did manage to question the door man at the restaurant who saw Harvey and Mike get into the limo and he gave me a decent description of the driver, but I want to get the camera footage above the door. The restaurant isn't being forthcoming though. Also, I decided to call for Harvey's client, Mr. Marco Lombardi and he hasn't been seen since yesterday either. Donna, whoever has Harvey and Mike, I don't think they were the intended targets."

Donna sighed in frustration. "How could I be so stupid? I didn't even think about the client being the troublesome one. Harvey and Mike just seem to find trouble well enough on their own."

"Or he could have been the one to instigate the kidnapping. At the moment, we can only speculate; we need evidence and we have been rather short on that lately. I think, for the moment, we should just focus on locating Harvey and Mike and getting them back safely before we focus on building a case against anyone in particular. I can pursue the restaurant owner for his camera footage, but not until you file the paper work. You can do that at – you said noon, right?"

"Yes."

"Then in an hour."

She nodded and unconsciously chewed on her lip while she filled out all of the pertinent information the forms required before finally signing it. She glanced up at Roy and he raised an eyebrow at her in return.

"What do you want to say?"

"I don't suppose you can use traffic cams to trace the route they took in the vehicle, can you?"

He snorted with laughter. "You've been watching too many of those damn CSI shows. We don't have that kind of sophisticated technology at our disposal. You know that!"

"Tracing a car doesn't require that much sophisticated technology."

"They were in a limousine, Donna. There's thousands of them in this city and we don't even know what exactly the car looked like."

"You will once you get the restaurant's footage."

He shook his head. "About the only good traffic cams are for is to determine who was at fault in a wreck. Trying to sort through all the limousines and correctly identifying the right one will take time. Time which you yourself say we don't have."

Donna pinched her eyes and kneaded her forehead. This inaction was killing her, but so far they had exhausted every avenue they could think of. "Maybe you should do a more thorough check of Mr. Lombardi's records. Like you said, he could be aiding in this," she suggested, trying to keep her frustration from getting the best of her.

"I could but, again, you need to have the papers filed and I need a warrant and probable cause and we currently don't have any of those."

The secretary gritted her teeth, trying to keep from tearing apart the Missing Person form, which happened to be the closest thing to her. _God damn bureaucracy, _she thought, even as she attempted to force her temper under her control again.

_Remember, they have this system for a reason. It's trying to keep innocent people from going to jail, like poor Clifford Danner. _This sobered her immediately, mostly when she thought about Harvey's reaction to that case after it was broken wide open. She admitted to herself that she had been caught up in the image of Harvey Specter as being invincible, but that façade had crumbled away like an avalanche off a mountain when he learned he was responsible for taking away twelve years of an innocent man's life.

Yes, bureaucracy was cumbersome and bloated even at its best, but if it meant keeping innocent people from prison then so be it.

"Why don't we get lunch while we wait?"

"Sure," Donna replied, folding up the papers, sticking them in her purse, and then rising to her feet, as graceful as ever. She began heading out the door but turned again when he got to his feet to follow. "Oh and I'll be paying my own way."

"That's fine. I'm not sure I could afford your taste anyway."

"Wow, Roy, you know how to sweep a woman off her feet."

**~+.Suits.+~**

Donna strode into the police station at 11:59, the missing persons papers already in hand. Summers lagged a few steps behind her, his hands shoved into his long coat nonchalantly, as if he had come back from an afternoon stroll. The secretary manning the desk wilted at the steely look in Donna's eyes and she promptly accepted the papers to begin filing them into the system.

"I'll take those, Denise," Summers offered with a nod. The lady sighed and handed the file to him once the report was computerized.

"Okay, now I'm going to draw up a warrant – "

"Donna!"

Both turned to find a tall, impeccably dressed, handsome blonde man heading their way and he had a slightly strained smile on his face.

"Brad, what are you doing here?" It took a moment for Donna to place him, because it _had_ been a while. She remembered; this was Brad Henshaw, attorney of New York, who had made Harvey best man at his wedding. Neither he nor Harvey had talked since, but mostly due to the fact that they were both busy.

"I heard that Harvey was missing and you were going to file the report at noon."

"Wait, how did you hear that?"

He lifted his eyebrows in surprise and quirked his mouth into a smile. "You don't think the news that Harvey's missing wouldn't spread like wildfire? He is still the best, even after twelve years."

"Well, yes, I'm aware of how proliferate Harvey was here, but…"

"That's my fault. I'm sure the communications department couldn't resist starting the fire when I called in my taps," Summers interjected with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh right," Donna said and she mentally badgered herself for forgetting that detail. Maybe she was too tired for this if she couldn't remember such a simple thing.

"Yes, so, listen, I know Harvey and I aren't especially close anymore, but I want to help find him. Let me know if there's anything I can do."

"We need warrants," Donna replied. She ignored Roy's annoyed expression and so did Brad.

"For?"

"Camera footage from the front of the restaurant where Harvey and Mike were last seen."

"Mike?"

"Harvey's associate."

"Oh yes, I vaguely remember him mentioning he got an associate in his last e-mail."

Donna eyed him and asked, "Was that the e-mail he sent you about being promoted?"

"Yeah, it's been a while. But what other warrant did you need?"

"The client they were having lunch with before they disappeared is also missing. We want to check his financial records for any bad history."

"You've gone through everyone else that could possibly do this?"

"Yes," Donna replied, but there was one man she had deliberately overlooked for fear of the implications. Cameron Dennis. He may have stepped down from being DA, but he certainly still had plenty of influence to exercise and she had it on good authority that the PD would hesitate to pursue him. If they actually dug up anything that even remotely pointed in his direction, she would then have to figure out a plan of attack.

Brad regarded both her and Roy with an expression of awe. "Well, it sounds like you have the investigation well in hand already. I'll get the warrants and we can head to that restaurant."

"What do you mean 'we?'" Summers asked with a frown.

**~+.Suits.+~**

It was late afternoon and Summers frowned over the various financial records of Marco Lombardi. The man was practically inundated with shady dealing after shady dealing, but technically, none of it was illegal. It was still akin to heading to the loan sharks and there would eventually be a point where those sharks would hunt you down an eat you. He had a terrible feeling Mr. Lombardi had just gotten eaten.

The detective's concern was mounting with each page he looked over and he was becoming uneasy at the logical conclusion the investigation appeared to be coming to: Harvey and his associate might very well be dead.

He was careful about what he said to Donna, iterating that he had found nothing conclusive yet. This was true. They had no leads on who would kidnap these men, let alone why. Thankfully, the part of the investigation that revolved around finding these men was going better. They had gotten the warrant and the tape all within an hour and it hadn't taken them more than fifteen minutes to find the footage with Harvey and his associate, but also the limo driver. Unfortunately the driver wasn't at work or at home, but they had learned from his employer that the man definitely had a criminal record. Summers now just hoped that the driver hadn't found himself a way to disappear too. To be certain, though they'd found a picture of him and circulated it around the entire precinct. Hopefully, with blanket coverage, they could finally haul him in and question him properly.

"Find anything of interest?"

Roy started from what he was reading to see Brad Henshaw leaning against his office door with a quizzical expression. Brad had come with him on the trip to get the restaurant footage and he had been surprised to find the lawyer had come in handy when the restaurant owner had continued to be stubborn, even with the warrant under his nose. Brad had threatened him short of suing him for his soul to make the man hand the tape over. Since then the lawyer acted as a liaison between Summers and Donna, while the secretary and Jessica Pearson worked on the media side of things.

"Plenty. This man is like the bane of the mafia's existence or the purpose for its existence. He's the complete package of not paying his debts, weaseling out of them and then…"

Brad winced. "You think maybe Harvey and Mike were in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time?"

"I have a feeling…" He locked eyes with the lawyer and shook his head ever so subtly. "Whatever you do, don't tell Donna. We don't need her stressing out when we don't know anything for sure. No bodies have turned up, so we don't have proof that they're dead yet."

Brad nodded. "I will be discreet when I talk to her."

There was a pause as Summers went through the papers and he shook his head, "You know, I would suspect that Lombardi had kidnapped the two of them with intent to ransom if not for the fact that we haven't heard _anything_ about any ransom notes."

"If it was him, maybe he's biding his time for some reason."

"I seriously doubt that with these kind of debts…"

"Maybe he sold Harvey and Mike to his debtors and they're going to ransom them off?" Brad didn't even sound like he believed it and Summers snorted with laughter.

"If Lombardi is an idiot – actually, he might be dumb enough to do that, if he's dumb enough to borrow from these people in the first place. But, again, I think we would have heard something by now. No, the best we can do right now is wa – " His phone beeped and Roy snatched at it.

"We got a lock on one of their cellphones."

**~+.Suits.+~**

_What a goddamned waste of time, _Summers fumed as he continued to go over Lombardi's records, waiting fruitlessly for the limo driver to finally head home.

He and Brad had immediately taken off to find the cellphone only to discover a couple of stupid teenagers had picked the phones out from the gutter and began downloading a ridiculous amount of apps and extraneous items. They had practically burst into the tears when they descended on them and promptly hauled them off the police station to give them a more thorough questioning. It was probably more effort than they should have bothered, but another lead going dry had pissed off Summers enough to make an example of the teenagers and he had a feeling he scared them off from petty theft for life.

About the only good to have come from chasing after the phone was to discover that both phones screens were busted up – still working, but busted – and they had also wound up finding both of their wallets under an illegally parked car, scuffed and marked from the road. It was clear evidence, at the very least, that they were definitely coerced into going somewhere against their will, stripped of their valuables, and then said items were tossed out the window of a moving car. Summers had handed over the items, but emphasized the wallets, to be brushed for fingerprints by forensics, but they had called him barely an hour later indicating that they didn't find any prints but Harvey and Mike's own on the wallets and the phones were covered in the kid's fingerprints. Whoever threw them out the window had being wearing gloves, no doubt as a precaution.

_Damn smart criminals. _ About the only positive Summers could get out of this was that if they were obviously smart about committing their crimes then it was very likely an extremely organized group, like the mafia, who had in fact kidnapped Lombardi, Specter, and Ross. He had long discovered that no matter how familiar a person was with committing crimes, at one point they would slip up. Hopefully that point would happen before the victims all ended up dead.

The detective jolted when his phone seemed to ring too loud in his car and he scrambled for it like someone who desperately did not want to be found. "Summers," he spoke gruffly by way of greeting.

"Roy," another old detective he knew said and he sat up abruptly.

"Yes?"

"The limo driver you've been looking for, Mr. Hernandez, he's been found."

_Finally! Another break in the case. _"I'll be right down there." He called Donna up as he was starting the engine to his car.

"Roy, I hope you have something."

He flinched at the sound of her voice, which sounded like she was ready to commit murder. "I do. I've been told that Hernandez has been found. Meet me down at the station."

"Finally, some answers!" She hung up and he gunned it as fast as he was willing to go in the streets of New York at midnight.

**~+.Suits.+~**

"Please tell me you're kidding. You must be joking."

"I'm telling you, we can't do it. We'll haul him in as soon as he leaves the area, but not before then."

"So why did you call me in?"

"Because you clearly need sleep. You look like hell."

Donna walked in on the tail end of the conversation with Brad trailing her. Even as fervent as she was about finding the boys, she had to admit that the other detective Roy was talking to had a point. Roy's eyes were bloodshot and somehow red-rimmed and circled by dark bruises. Few pulled off scruffy well and Roy definitely wasn't one of them; his face was half-shaven with a grey beard and his shirt was wrinkled and rumpled beyond repair. Donna agreed quietly, Roy desperately needed a good night's sleep and another change of clothes.

"Roy, what's the news?"

He seemed to deflate upon seeing her and he had a defeated look in his eyes as he searched for an answer.

"Okay, you know how I was informed that Mr. Hernandez was found?"

"Yes," she replied, drawing out her answer even as she settled on what seemed to be the next thing he was about to say.

"Well…"

"He's dead."

"No!"

She sighed in relief at the vehement reply. "So…?"

"Well, the thing is, one of our, uh, agents, spotted him at a dog fighting ring." She waited for the rest of the answer. "The department's been trying to crack this ring for months! We can't just walk up to him and haul him off; that would blow the whole thing wide open and we're not ready for that. So we have to wait for him to leave."

"How long is that bound to be?"

"Hours."

"Damn it!" Donna gritted her teeth again at the fact that they were stalled, even if momentarily. "All right then, Roy, why don't you go home and catch up on some sleep. You need it or you'll be of no use tomorrow."

Roy nodded in resignation and started heading out the door without a single protest.

"Brad, you should probably go home too. It's not like there's anything more that you can do here."

He chuckled. "You can't get rid of me that easily. I already cleared it with the wife. I'm just going to get a hotel room and then I won't have to worry about a commute tomorrow morning."

"All right, do you what you want, but I'm heading home too."

"Goodnight then."

It was with some regret that Donna found herself heading down the steps to Ray who was holding the door to the car open for her. It was only the second day but it already felt like they were running out of time.

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Some of you may have noticed that this chapter contained a few references to the pilot episode so, yes, I finally watched it. It was great. Remember, if you're from the US and you really want to watch Suits, they're rerunning season 1 again on Friday nights 1110pm central (I think).**

**Thank you for reading and reviewing. =)**


	9. Slipped

**Author's Note: Thank you all for your reviews! I really appreciate it. =)**

**Slipped**

"Hi, I'm here to see Mrs. Susan Ross," Donna said to the woman at the front desk of the nursing home.

"And who might you be?" The woman asked .

"Donna Gallagher. I'm here to talk to her about her grandson, Mike Ross."

"You may go. It's down the hall, take a right at the first intersection and her number is 140."

Donna smiled and walked through the double doors down the wide and spotless hallway.

This was overdue. She should have told Mike's grandmother yesterday about his disappearance, but she hadn't due to a combination of being too busy and really hoping that all hers and Roy's efforts would have found them by now. But it felt like they were getting no closer.

_Enough! It's only the morning of the third day. There's still hope, _she chastised herself. Upon reaching the door, she schooled her face and knocked on the door.

"Come in," a quavering voice called out and she opened the door.

The room was small, so the little old lady sitting across the way in a rocking chair was hard to miss. Mrs. Ross looked up and smiled and reached up to pull her specs off. "Hello!"

"Mrs. Ross," Donna started and shook her hand. "It's wonderful to finally meet you. My name is Donna."

"Nice to meet you. The secretary of my grandson's boss right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"it's so nice to put a person to the name. Now, if only I could see Mr. Specter himself. I would be very keen to meet the man who gave my grandson a chance at a better life."

Donna hoped that Mrs. Ross couldn't detect the slight strain in her smile. "Well, maybe one day…"

"Now, I know you did not come here to socialize, so please, tell me what brings you here to see me."

The secretary drew in a deep breath and decided to go for the ripped-off-like-a-Band-Aid approach. "Mrs. Ross…"

"Call me gram, please."

"Gram, I…I'm very sorry to tell you that Mike – and Harvey – are missing." Shock and fear immediately washed over the older woman's face and Donna reached over to place a comforting hand on her arm. "They were having lunch with a client Tuesday, but no one has seen them since they left the restaurant. I'm using every resource that I can to find them, I promise you."

Mrs. Ross was shocked for a moment and then nodded and said, "Thank you for telling me. Mike has not told me much about you, but I have no doubt…you will find them."

"Thank you for your confidence, gram," Donna replied, squeezing her hand gently. "My friends in the police department are following up on a promising lead this morning. I'll let you know how that goes."

Donna sat with Mike's grandmother for another half hour to give the older woman some much needed company and comfort. She only left her side later when she saw Summer's name pop up on the caller ID.

**~+.Suits.+~**

Detective Roy Summers smiled cheerfully through the window. He hadn't gotten more than a few hours of sleep and his clothes, while fresh, appeared to hang loosely on him, and his eyes remained bloodshot, but he was happy nonetheless. He had gotten the call at 5 am that Frank Hernandez had been picked up a few blocks from the dog fighting ring and was now sitting awaiting interrogation. Summers had practically leapt out of bed and into his clothes; he stopped a moment to brush his hair, and was out the door in five minutes. On the way, he called the lawyer - not that he really wanted to, but Brad did request to be informed of every step - and said he would meet him in an hour. So it was with some surprise that when he felt someone step up next to him, that it was the lawyer, looking just as fresh and clean as ever.

"Damn that was quick."

Brad grinned. "You thought I'd take an hour to get ready? Please. I'm not a woman."

"That remains to be seen."

The lawyer raised his eyebrows and replied, "Dress may not be important in your line of work, but it is in mine. A lawyer must be prepared to make an impression, whether it's good or mean."

Summers waved a hand in dismissal; he really couldn't care less about a lawyer's work. What he did care about was the man in front of him, who was skinny, shifty, and most surprisingly nervous. Apparently, even when knowingly committing a crime, the man was not comfortable with it. This was going to be a walk in the park.

"Want me to call Donna?" Brad asked as he stared at the man with narrowed eyes.

"Call her when we know something," Summers replied, putting the case file under his arm and heading out the door. He decided to get straight to the point, with guns blazing full out intimidation. The angry look and the purposeful stride right from the start caused Hernandez to shrink back. He slapped the folder on the table, opened it, and placed a picture of each of the three missing people and he tapped a finger on Harvey's picture.

"All right, Mr. Hernandez, here's the deal: all three of these men went missing after you picked them up from Romero's Tuesday afternoon. Now, see this man here? He's the best attorney in the state with more than enough powerful friends who care about his welfare. Now, there better not be even a hair on his head out of place when we find him or they will eat you alive."

Sweat was streaming down Hernandez's face and he was trembling uncontrollably in his seat. Summers wondered for a moment if he had scared the man silent, but all at once everything came tumbling out and he smiled approvingly.

"A shipyard you say? Mind showing us where precisely?"

**~+.Suits.+~**

The drive to the eastern shipyards was quiet. Summers had traded his own car for a police cruiser, so that Hernandez could ride securely in the back. Brad was sitting next to the detective and he seemed to be purposely avoiding eye contact as though he were afraid the main in the back would be able to glean something he shouldn't.

As the shipyard came into view, Summers glanced up into the rearview mirror and asked, "Where to next?"

"Just keep going until you get right up to the shipping containers and turn right."

Summers glanced up again to frown over Hernandez, who was eagerly trying to peer out the window. The once visibly nervous man was now providing confident answers and as much as he would like to credit it to the man's good memory, he made a mental note to be wary of the guy.

"Left here! Yeah, here no go - wait! Stop!"

"So is this is then?"

"I...think so?"

Both Brad and Summers turned to glare into the back.

"All the shipping containers have been moved! I can't tell for sure. Let me out and I'll have a look," Hernandez said to them, his voice shrill and high pitched.

Summers ignored the man and climbed out, frowning over the scene.

Quite a bit of the area had been cleaned out of the containers and he could actually see the workers loading them onto a giant barge. He looked over to Brad and said, "Let's comb the area. If you see anything suspicious, don't touch! Come get me!"

"Right," Brad said, with the tiniest bit of sarcasm.

They spread out from the car, both with their heads staring mostly at the ground, but occasionally they looked up to scan the remaining containers. Summers really hadn't gotten far when something red caught his eye. "Hey, bloodstain! Right here!"

Brad strode over and cocked his head. "Think you can get an analysis?"

"Hmm...I don't know."

"We did have that rain come through last night and there were those dock workers that trudged through here."

"I know! I know!" Summers glared up at the lawyer who merely shrugged. "From the looks of it, I'd say it's a few days old and judging by the spread, one person got shot."

"Think it might be Lombardi's?"

"I think that would be the most logical presumption. After all, this Lucio character was specifically after him. These men don't necessarily have a beef to pick with Harvey or his associate."

"You mean until they watched the murder at least?"

Summers flicked up to him and for the first time he felt a little apprehension. "Now what would they do with a couple of lawyers if they weren't going to kill them?"

"Put them somewhere?"

"But where? They can't just hold them prisoner indefinitely."

Brad bit his bottom lip and looked worried, but then he refocused the topic. "You really think you can get a decent sample out of that considering the damage?"

Summers gritted his teeth. "Doubt it. As I said to Donna, we don't exactly have CSI technology."

Brad nodded and sighed.

"I need to report this. Whether it's been violated or not, it's still a crime scene."

While Summers went off to report it, Brad stayed by the bloodstain and looked around the area, only to see more large expanses of concrete and shipping containers some distance away. The odds of a security camera being in the area and catching and the action looked pretty remote.

"Oy! What you doin' here, man?"

Brad glanced up as an older man with a bushy mustache dressed in the dockworker uniform came striding over to them, looking as though he were about to pick a fight. The lawyer raised his head and flashed a fake badge he had picked up in the police car. "Detective Henshaw. Information led my partner and I here where there appears to be blood. Would you know anything about that, sir?"

The man frowned. "No, I don't know nothin' 'bout that. No one's been over here for a few days. We all been on the north end, loading up thte ship over there."

"Really? No one's been here?"

"Hey, hey! This is a big shipping yard. We got several crews runnin' around here. Maybe one o' them saw something, but its not been reported management if they did."

Brad cocked his head, studying the man and narrowed his eyes. Finally, he reached into his suit jacket and pulled out the ID pictures of Harvey and Mike. "These two were thought to have been through here. Have you seen them?"

The man blinked slowly at the pictures and puffed his mustache out. "No, no I haven' seen 'em."

"Are you sure?"

"Nobody's been through here."

Brad smiled and nodded and then he said, "You're lying to me."

**~+.Suits.+~**

Lawyer and associate took a moment to survey the scene, taking note of the extreme darkness and the dockworker's use of floodlights to counteract it.

"Does this seem standard to you?" Harvey asked with a puzzled frown. "I know these people often to get off to an early start, but I don't think the sunrise is just a few minutes off."

"What does it matter? There are people," Mike replied in a rushed voice. He then raised his voice, "Hey! Hey, someone out here! Yo!"

"I don't think your voice is carrying enough," Harvey said and he then put his fingers into his mouth for a sharp whistle.

That turned a few heads.

"Hey out there! Hey! We're stuck in here! Let us out," Harvey called as a few of the men drifted closer.

"You could say please."

Harvey stared at his associate as if he'd lost his mind. "We've been trapped in a container without food and water and you're worried about manners?"

"It's the polite thing to do. Make's people more sympathetic and willing to help."

"If I'd stumbled across anyone stuck in a shipping container, I wouldn't hesitate to let them out because they didn't say please."

Mike just huffed and shouted out of the window, "Please, please let us out! We've been in here for three days!"

Finally the men were close enough that they could see their eyes widen in surprise and they soon started to talk to each other in an excited albeit hushed voices.

Harvey frowned. Alarm bells were ringing off in his head and he could feel his heart quicken in his chest as he continued to watch the workers appear to debate whether to release them. "Hey, please let us out," Harvey called out to them, allowing a little bit of desperation to seep into his voice. Dignity be damned, they had to get out.

One worker crept closer, his eyes darting around as though he were about to do something criminal. He took a few more steps, almost out of the range of their vision.

"Hey!" A voice cut through and the man jumped away from the door as though it suddenly burned red hot. "You forget about them. This ain't any of your business."

"No no no, please! Please just let us out! You can't just leave us here," Harvey shouted at them, slamming his hands against the wire mesh. Mike looked shell-shocked.

The workers were already backing away. The one man who'd been ready to let them out was a little slower to step away was staring at them with a mixture of pity and fear.

"I will pay you! I will pay you twenty thousand dollars to let us out! Please, please let us out," Harvey shouted, his voice getting louder by the syllable.

"If you'd been stuck in here, I would've let you out! No hesitation! Please, please let us out!"

The offer of the money didn't even seem to phase the man, and he continued to step back. The others that had been with him had hesitated, but their eyes kept darting to the right, which Harvey thought was where the voice had originally come from.

"No, stop! Come back! No! This is a life and death situation. Please let us out," Harvey continued as he watched the men continue to fall back until they were barely discernible in the light.

Harvey slumped even as he continued to stare out through the mesh. The despair he had worked so hard to keep at bay was threatening to consume him as they both watched their one good hope disappear. He turned to Mike who swallowed loudly as though he were trying to hold back a sob; the closer could seen even in the dim light the tears that were threatening to fall out of Mike's eyes. And for the first time since he hired Mike, he had nothing to offer him: no miracle plan pulled out of thin air and no hope.

"Now, now, my friends, I can't have you upsetting my workers," an older man with a bushy moustache said with a low chuckle as if he were humoring a pair of kids. "No one's gonna help ya here, so why don't you jus' keep quiet until its your time."

Harvey narrowed his eyes at the man and was about to ask, 'our time for what?' when Mike spoke.

"Why are you doing this to us?" Mike asked in such a pitiful voice that Harvey though his heart clenched. "Please, just let us out! I am the only other living family member my grammy has left. Please let us out!"

"At least let the kid out," Harvey said, throwing his support behind his associate's.

"No, Harvey – !"

"No one's gettin' out," the man snapped. His face seemed to soften a little when he saw them staring at him like they would a monster. "Hey, don' take it personally alrigh'. I'm just followin' orders."

"Following orders or not, you will still be considered an accessory to murder if you don't let us out right now," Harvey replied darkly.

The man only chuckled again. "hah! That's only if they find you an' I don' think they will." He was still laughing as he walked off.

"Harvey," Mike said in a pleading voice.

The older lawyer looked at him, struggling to get his voice to work for a moment until he finally shook his head and turned to shout out for help, to beg for it, again. Mike just slumped against the wall and let out a sob as he slid down to sit once more, but he couldn't contain the tears any longer and just buried his face in his knees as he hugged them to himself.

Harvey continued shouting for some time and then, finally, he couldn't shout anymore and he slid down to join his associate. Mike glanced up from where he'd buried his head and quailed at the look on the older man's face; he looked completely numb.

"Harvey?" Mike asked, wanting some sort of reaction. But the closer merely stared and stayed silent. Even though he'd just been shouting at the top of his lungs, he could seem to say a word to him. Mike grabbed his shoulder and shook it, saying, "Harvey, please, say something!"

Harvey did not stir, but he did speak in a croaking voice, "I don't know what to say, Mike." There were certainly plenty of things he thought about saying, but they would only foster the despair they were both feeling and he couldn't do that to the puppy. He couldn't be the one to crush his spirit.

"We'll get out, won't we? Someone willing is bound to come along."

"I don't know, Mike. I just…don't know," Harvey replied, wincing at the sharp ache in his throat. It was raw when he'd woken up and his shouting only exacerbated the pain. Goddamn, he needed water.

Suddenly the container jolted underneath them as it started to move. Harvey shot to his feet, but lost his balance before he could look out the window and fell on his ass again. He jumped to his feet again and shouted out the window once more.

"Hey hey! Let us out! You need to let us out!"

"Shut up in there!"

"No, you shut up," Harvey growled and he winced slightly from the pain that followed. "If you don't let us out, you're all going to prison for murder! Stop this right now!" The container stopped moving and Harvey tried not to be pleased that his words were finally heeded. "Now, let us out please! What are you waiting for? Comaaauugh!"

The container shifted up and with no real purchase at the tiny window, Harvey staggered back until he was caught on the other wall. He and Mike exchanged mystified expressions as they continued to be lifted up in the air. Then all at once, understanding came to them and they both attempted to be heard over the mechanical groaning of the cran.

"No stop! – "

" – Please let us out! Don't leave us here to die! – "

" – You can't do this to us! You need to let us out! –"

" – Please, we won't hurt you! We just want to live, damn it! – "

"Please!"

They were lowered onto the boa with a jarring thud and they were surprised at the sudden extreme dimness of the light. Harvey peered out the darkened window to investigate and then his eyes widened in realization and he started shouting again with renewed strength.

"No! Don't do this to us! Stop, stop please! Imaging what it would be like trapped in here! Now please, let us out!" Harvey actually bothered to kick the door and he gritted his teeth at the vibration that ran up his leg. Then he returned to what he originally started and slammed his shoulder against the door, over and over and over again.

There was no response and a few minutes later a container was lowered on the other side, effectively sealing them in the darkness.

* * *

><p><strong>There are a few more chapters left! Try not to despair! =D<strong>

**Thank you again for all your lovely reviews and support. It warms my soul. ^^**


	10. Defied

**Author's Note: Thank you, everyone, for reading and reviewing. =) I know that chapter was a really difficult one to read, but this one should make you feel a little better!**

**hollowgirl15: How about a little bit of both for both? ;)**

**Defied**

Mike was trying to stay calm, but he could still feel his heart pounding against his ribs as adrenaline pumped through his veins. He felt like he were on the verge of a hysterical breakdown – the one prior had been a silent one of just tears – but now, what felt like a solid block of emotions was welling up in his chest and threatening to come out in one long, despairing howl. And the only thing that was keeping him from completely losing his composure was the older man stuck with him.

He honestly wasn't sure why Harvey's presence soothed him when he hadn't uttered a single word since they were sealed in darkness. The only acknowledgment that he had really given him was allowing Mike to sidle up as close as he possibly could, so that they were touching each other arm to arm, knee to knee. It was neither welcomed nor rejected, but Mike found he was okay with this.

He had a feeling that Harvey was similarly wrestling with his internal emotions so that he didn't degenerate into hysteria. The whole time Harvey had kept up the optimistic front, comforted by certain facts that this was not the end. He and Donna had their connections with the police, but, most importantly, they had Donna, who had yet to fail at any task. But now their fate was all but sealed. It seemed very unlikely that anyone in the police force would think to look for victims in shipping containers. Even worse, they were now loaded on a barge to God knows where and there was no possible way they could survive that journey. But, for the moment, they were stuck in port and that was enough that he dared allow a sliver of hope that there was a chance that they would be found.

Slim as it may be, it was still a chance.

Mike shivered as the damp cold seemed to sink into his skin and he snuggled closer to Harvey, now long past caring about whether such actions were childish. He did expect Harvey to say something acerbic to him in regards to his snuggling – and he was determined to ignore it – so he was surprised when Harvey not only didn't say anything, but when the older lawyer actually wrapped his arms around him in return and pulled him even closer.

"Harvey, why aren't you talking?" Mike suddenly asked and winced at how loud it sounded in the silence.

Several minutes seemed to pass and just when Mike was beginning to wonder if Harvey had take the question rhetorically, he spoke in a croaking voice, "There's nothing that I can think of that will make the situation better."

"Hmm…you don't sound good. Are you okay?"

"Fine," Harvey replied and this time the croak was followed by a cough.

"Yeah, you sound it," Mike replied. He was really hoping the sarcasm would disguise the worry he now had for his mentor.

"Just shouted my voice away is all." He coughed again, powerful enough that Mike could actually feel it rattling through his chest. "Thirsty."

"I thought we weren't going to talk about hunger or thirst?"

"You asked why my throat's bad."

Mike conceded with a sigh and glanced around the container before he banged his head on the wall. The lack of light was driving him to distraction – there wasn't anything to hear either! The only thing that reassured him he wasn't completely senseless was the sound of Harvey's soft breathing and the thick damp cloth of his suit jacket. The associate shivered again even despite being as to Harvey as he could without sitting in his lap. And then, as if sensing his train of thought, Harvey loosened his arm and tugged on his shoulder. "C'mon, pup. Might as well sit in my lap." It took a little bit more fumbling than the first time now that the world was pitch black. Mike gladly sat back against his chest and he actually smiled when Harvey wrapped his arms around him again.

"Wow, you're really warm. Are you sure you're not sick?" Mike asked, surprised to feel such heat radiating from his boss when he felt like he wasn't generating any heat at all.

"It's called 'bulk,' Mike," Harvey replied and Mike wouldn't deny that he was pleased that the response had more life than any of his others. "I know that's something you and your zero fat and muscle just can't comprehend."

Mike rolled his eyes not caring that Harvey couldn't see. The conversation petered off and all they could hear were the distance thumps of the crane moving containers. In the silence, the associate's thoughts drifted off on the road about how his life always had so much potential and yet was now ending after a culmination of failures. Life would have been so much easier if he hadn't allowed Trevor to get in his way. No, it would have been much closer to a cake walk if he hadn't gotten in his own way. He'd had the intelligence to land a virtual plethora of scholarships and opportunities – as was evidenced by the fact that Harvey had taken him in – but he allowed himself to get caught up making fast and easy money selling drugs and cheating on tests. What a waste.

Mike gritted his teeth and pushed the thoughts away, but in the sensory vacuum, there was little else to focus on, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: "Hey, Harvey?"

He received a grunt in response and continued, "Okay, say you had a chance to see someone right now for, let's say an hour. Who would it be?"

"Kid, your line of thought is not healthy. You're only torturing yourself thinking about it."

"Well trust me when I say that it's better than what I was thinking about," Mike replied in a dark tone.

Harvey sighed, which triggered yet another cough, before he settled back down in silence again. Mike deflated when he didn't receive an answer, though he did try to placate himself that Harvey was hardly the type to spill his deepest, darkest secrets. He had hoped that the seemingly concrete dead end would convince the lawyer to loosen up and allow him to get a better idea of the person he was. It's not like Mike was in the position to tell anybody… He winced at the thought and simultaneously felt tears prickle his eyes and his heart clench, even as he though the emotions down. _No point in crying about it. It's not like that will change the situation._

"All right, fine, you don't want to answer then I'll tell you mine," Mike said, sucking in a deep breath and going on, "I'm sure this won't surprise you, but I think I'd probably see my grammy again. I'd try to cheer her up and play chess with her, so that she wouldn't have to think about being left all alone." The choked on the last couple of words and felt a few tears slip down his face as he wondered just who would pay his grammy's bills now. He felt Harvey shake his head in what he was sure was likely exasperation and the words 'I told you so' seemed to hang in the air, but the lawyer never actually gave them presence and instead he just patted Mike's shoulder in comfort.

There were a few more minutes of silence again and just as Mike was trying to think of something else to keep the conversation going, Harvey finally said, "Donna."

Mike perked up. "You'd want to see Donna? Any particular reason why?"

Another long pause followed and just when the associate thought his boss was fed up answering his stupid questions, he replied, "I'd make sure she's okay."

"Okay? You're talking about the threat Lucio made? Harvey, I have a feeling he was just bluffing."

"So did I, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen."

Mike had to silently marvel at the older lawyer who definitely did not care about anyone but himself. Excluding the fact that it was a complete and utter lie, it was quite amazing to see just what Harvey focused on that disproved his entire self-interested attitude and this fixation on Donna's safety baffled the associate. Although he had a feeling when asked to explain it that Harvey would put it under the umbrella of , 'She's my employee and I'm responsible for her just like I'm responsible for you.'

Instead, Mike asked, "What would you say to her?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Nothing at all?"

"I wouldn't need to say anything."

Mike instantly thought back to the time after Harvey had fired him for smoking pot and he was trying to talk his way past Donna:

"_So he told you?" The, at the time, former associate asked with some exasperation. _

_Donna responded with an unsympathetic look of her own: "He didn't need to say anything. I saw it on his face."_

As far as Mike could tell, it was simply another piece of evidence that somehow, Donna and Harvey had a relationship that even went beyond words, to the point where they did not have to have an actual conversation in order to grasp a situation. From what he had gathered, the two of them had met a little more than a decade ago, and yet they had a better and closer relationship than he had ever had with Trevor, and he'd known his friend for almost twice as long.

He jumped a little when he felt something thump against his shoulder and it took him a moment to realize Harvey had decided to use him as a pillow.

"Harvey?"

"I'm tired, Mike. Mind suspending the conversation for a few hours?"

"Sure."

**~+.Suits.+~**

Brad Henshaw glared at the man with the bushy mustache through the observation room. He had convinced Detective Summers to haul the man in for questioning and had now faced several fruitless hours of trying to get the guy to spill. He was convinced that the man _knew_ where Harvey and his associate, Mike, were but there was no evidence. Just a gut intuition.

He was fairly certain that if Harvey were here, he'd be laughing at him right now.

"You plan on starving him to death in there?" Summers asked from where he was sitting at a table, looking through Lombardi files once more.

"It's worth a shot."

"Intimidation certainly didn't work, the subtle approach didn't work, so perhaps you can weaken him by pretending to forget about him. I think you've got something surefire there."

"Laugh all you want. He knows something! I mean, you can search those damn records again, but you're not going to find anything that you haven't already seen. Actually, I think you should look through Lucio's records to see if he has any connection to this shipping yard. Then maybe we can haul his ass in and get some real answers!"

"Well, I don't care what you do." They both turned to see the District Attorney standing there, glowering at them and he stepped up to Brad. "You've got one more hour to try and get whatever information you think he has and then he gets released! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," Summers replied with a nod.

Brad only glared in return, not daring to say anything in case his mouth decided to run away from him. But, not for the first time, he wondered if detaining this guy was simply the result of a misplaced target of frustration. Something had been niggling at the back of his mind since they had visited the shipping yard and he could not quite put his finger on what had bothered him. He had settled on the management guy because he was almost certain he did in fact know something, but even beyond the knowledge he needed the evidence and he had a feeling it was the idea that he was trying to find.

The shipyard was the scene of a crime – as of yet undetermined if it was the Lombardi-Specter-Ross crime scene – and because of the age and the results of natural elements and employee traffic, it was a violated scene that didn't yield anything conclusive. He had a feeling that it was staring him straight in the face and he had expressed these frustrations to Donna after they had taken the mustached guy in.

She was getting anxious. He was getting anxious. Perhaps they were feeding on each other's emotions, but Brad was concerned that their window for finding Harvey and Mike – alive – was closing. They were _assuming_ that they were being kept somewhere with access to food and water, but what if they weren't? That meant finding them within the next twenty-four hours was imperative.

Summers, for whatever reason, did not appear to find the situation nearly as urgent. He appeared to have relaxed a little at finding such a major breakthrough in the case in the driver and he was certain that, eventually, they would catch the people who did this and would automatically find Harvey and Mike when they did. They had drawn up the arrest warrant as soon as Lucio was implicated and it was signed by the time they had gotten back from the shipping yards. Now they just had to wait for him to finally get hauled in.

Brad was just about to go into the interrogation room to attempt to persuade the mustached man to reconsidering his feigned ignorance when Summers cellphone rang and he answered it.

"Detective Summers. Yeah? Really? Well, we'd be very interested in hearing what he has to say."

Brad raised an eyebrow at him. "Lucio?"

"No, a dockworker from the shipping yards has come in with a tip," Summers said and suddenly tension was radiating from his shoulders. "Okay, I'll concede now, you were probably right about that guy knowing something if someone else under his charge is coming forward. Now let's go see if it's any use."

They trooped back to Summers' office where they found the dockworker wringing his hands and he jumped when the detective announced their presence.

"You're the one lookin' for the men, right?"

"These two?" Summers held out his hands for the pictures Brad had and then he held them up for the guy to see. "Have you seen them?"

"Yes, I seen them, I think."

"You think?"

"It was hard to tell, but it was two men and they were callin' for help."

"Where were they?" Brad asked urgently.

"In a shipping container."

There was a moment of silence.

"Did you say a shipping container?" Brad asked.

"Yes. They were loaded up on a ship. I couldn' – I couldn't stand the thought of anyone sufferin' like that. That's why I came."

That was when everything clicked. The shipping containers had been moved just _hours_ before they had gotten there. It could have been business, but the time table was so close that it had bothered him and now, he understood, they had been moved because Harvey and Mike were stuck in one. It implied that someone within the police force had actually tipped off management of the shipping yard and to avoid any messy police business, the problem had been removed. Brad felt the nausea rise in his chest at the thought that he and Summers hadn't been standing more than fifty yards from the ship in question.

"Which ship was that?" Summers snapped.

Brad had already started down the hallway. "Issue a stop on all harbor traffic and get a search team together. We need to get down there!"

* * *

><p><strong>I will attempt to get the next chapter out in a timely fashion. Thank you for reading! =)<strong>


	11. Discovered

**Author's Note: Thank you, once again, for reading and reviewing. I'm glad you all enjoyed the chapter. Now, as promised, here is the newest chapter very quickly! Enjoy. =)**

**Lo: Aww...you probably would still be alive. Obviously, circumstances vary, but generally starving takes about a week and dehydration can take between 3-5 days. **

**Discovered**

Brad stared up at the monolithic structure of the ship with mixed feelings of incredulity and fear, which was then transformed into a rising tide of nausea. He swallowed to keep the bile down. Now was not the time to contemplate the horrible situation Harvey and his associate were in; they needed to just find them.

He had called up Donna with breathless excitement in the ride over, shouting over the sound of the siren to be heard; "Donna! Donna! We know where they are!"

"What? You found them?"

"No, not yet, but we know where they're being kept. I'll call you as soon as we do find them."

Wait! Where? Where are they?"

"We got a tip that they're in a shipping container. On a ship." Silence filled the other end of the line. "I have to go. I'll let you know when we've found them, all right?"

"Okay," she replied in a quiet voice.

Summers took charge, practically shoving the warrant right in the captain's face. "We have a warrant to search the entire ship, every shipping container. If you'd like to tell us which container two people are in and save us some trouble, then please do so. Otherwise, we're unloading the entire ship!"

"Wha-what? No, you can't do that. We're supposed to be shipping out at five." It was 3:30 in the afternoon.

The detective glared at the man. "The city of New York says I can. So I suggest you get out of our way and we'll make this as quick and painless as possible. Now," he turned to the workers who had dropped everything they were doing to watch the showdown, "do any of you know where the two men in the shipping container can be found?"

His question was greeted by silence as every worker seemed to stare at him in bewilderment.

"On the bottom."

All eyes turned to a man who was staring at them with dull eyes and he blinked slowly in a clear sign of exhaustion. "I can't remember which container, but they were in among the first on the ship."

"Thank you. Brad, you guys, follow me," Summers said, pointing at the lawyer and a couple of men from the search and rescue squad. Once on the ship, they walked down to the cargo hold and Summers continued, "Okay, I want you to go through and knock on every single door of the containers. Maybe they'll respond and we can get them out faster, but if not then we'll unload everything and search every container."

"Got it. Let's split up; we'll cover the area faster."

**~+.Suits.+~**

Mike knew something was very wrong when he woke up. Harvey's breath, wet and raspy as it was, was barely more than a rattle in his chest.

"Harvey?" Mike called and he levered himself away from his boss and reached out in the dark for him. He brushed his forehead and found it hot and slick with sweat.

The older lawyer groaned and shivered. "Mike, no stop."

Mike almost gasped at the whiny quality of his voice and immediately felt his fear increase. "Harvey? Oh shit, oh shit. No, Harvey, don't do this now." He poked and prodded Harvey since he was unable to see and was shocked to find his crisp white shirt and vest were completely soaked through with sweat, but Harvey still shivered violently as if they were in a blizzard.

"Holy shit, Harvey, don't do this now," Mike screamed, clutching at his own hair in helplessness.

"Don't be stupid. I'm fine. I'll be fine," Harvey said, but the words were mumbled, hollow and weak. "Just turn the temperature up, kid. It gets drafty in the office sometimes." And delusional.

"Oh my God, no! Fuck, what am I going to do?" Even as he cried out, his powerful memory was already cycling through everything he'd read about flu, pneumonia, and other winter sicknesses. Yet none of it was making the task any easier; virtually anything he could do for Harvey involved modern day conveniences and appliances.

Worse yet, he happened to recall right at that moment a particularly heart-rending case about a little girl who died from the fucking flu because the nurse couldn't get an IV into her. Death by flu-induced dehydration and Harvey hadn't had a drink in three days. Rain water didn't count.

"Harvey? Harvey? Hey," he smacked the lawyer on the cheek, "hey, you gotta stay with me."

"Why is it so cold in here? Maybe I should send Donna out for some coffee."

"We're not in the office, Harvey, pull yourself together," Mike said in a voice choked with anguish, trying to keep from panicking. He could only recall one time when he'd had a high fever from pneumonia, his grandmother had told him that he had been delusional about the car crash. He was certain this was the exact same thing, but he couldn't feed Harvey ice cubes like his grandma did to him.

_Think, damn it, think! What can you do? _Mike berated himself as he blindly searched the dark for a solution. He rubbed his hands together. Damn it was cold! Now that he could no longer sit with Harvey, the chill had become more pronounced. A light bulb went off in his head. The cold! He needed to put something cold on Harvey's forehead; the container floor would do. He searched for Harvey's shoulders and when he found them, he started pushing the older man over.

"M-mike? What are you doing? Stop!"

Mike was almost disappointed at the weak fight Harvey put up by slapping at his arms.

"Easy, Harvey, easy. You need to lie down. You're sick," Mike placated in as calm a voice as he could manage. "That's it. Take it easy."

"Mike?"

The associate stilled. There was a different quality in the older lawyer's voice. "Yeah, Harvey?"

"Are we going to get out? I don't want to die here."

Mike bit his lip to try and keep the tears and the despair at bay. He was about to respond, but in the next instant, the moment was gone and Harvey was mumbling about how Mike needed to draft a patent. Finally, he replied in a hushed whisper, "We're going to get out, Harvey. I promise."

With that, he staggered stiffly to his feet and groped around for what he remembered was the direction of the door. When he finally found it, he took a few steps back and threw his shoulder into it. Again. And again. And again.

He vowed that he would not stop until he dropped dead.

**~+.Suits.+~**

_Clonk clonk clonk! _

Brad listened for an answer of some sort, but he didn't hear anything and he moved on again. He'd done this six times and could even hear the search and rescue knocking in their own respective aisles and still nothing. He tried to stifle the idea that they could already be dead, but the idea wasn't without merit. They hadn't had food or water for three days and the weather was still chilly, ranging from about twenty-five degrees to forty. If they were alive, they'd be weak. Maybe even too weak to answer.

_Clonk clonk clonk!_

He listened and froze.

_Boom!_

The sound was distant, but certainly not coming from his container. He stood still a moment longer and heard it again. He began jogging down the aisle, as quietly as he could and heard the sound again. It was getting louder! He picked up speed as he continued to zero in on it until finally he stood in front of the container in question, just as he heard yet another loud thump hit the door.

Brad knocked. "Hey in there! I'm here to help!"

"Hello? Please hurry! Harvey's sick! He needs help!"

"Give me a second," Brad replied and he pulled his walkie talkie. "Summers, this is Brad reporting in. I found them! At the end of my aisle. We request immediate medical assistance; bring a stretcher. I'm letting them out now."

"Roger. We'll be down there in five minutes."

"Stand back. I'm going to let you out." He undid the three or four latches that kept the door in place and carefully lowered it down. He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting to see, but it wasn't quite what he thought.

Mike had his hands clamped over his eyes and very carefully peeled them away and stared at him in surprise as though he were an angel descended from heaven. "This is really happening, isn't it? You're really real? I'm not hallucinating our rescue? You came awfully fast."

"Well, perhaps when we tell you the story of how we found you, you'll be certain," Brad replied, though he was surprised. The photo did not do the kid any justice because that's all he was, a kid. His skin was surprisingly clean, but his eyes were red-rimmed and his shirt, pants, and jacket were wrinkled beyond repair. The tie had long been discarded.

Mike nodded and then he just like that he turned and slid down next to the other person. "Harvey! Harvey? Come on, we're getting out, we're going to make it! Harvey?"

Brad came up and knelt down beside him, and then had to hide his grimace. Harvey stared out at the other end of the container with dull eyes and he was almost gasping for breath and his face was tinged red, either from the effort of breathing or the heat, he wasn't really sure.

"What are you waiting for? Help him!"

"Easy, Mike. The medical team is on its way. Harvey! Harvey, you there?" He tapped the other lawyer on the cheek and he was pleased when that seemed to elicit a reaction, even if all he did was flit his eyes over and groan. "Jesus, you look like hell! When did he become like this?"

"Well…he said his throat started hurting earlier this morning and when I woke up, uh, 15-20 minutes ago, he was like this."

"Great. Don't worry, Mike, we'll get him help. You're going to get out of here."

"I just want Harvey to be okay."

**~+.Suits.+~**

Donna strode through the hospital on a mission. She had been informed by Brad barely fifteen minutes ago that her boys were in the hospital and she had all but threatened the cab driver with bodily harm if he didn't get her to the hospital in less than twenty minutes. She would have to try that technique again.

She turned the corner and found a young man wrapped in a blanket, pacing the hallway with the lawyer Brad apparently trying to get him to sit down and rest.

"Mike!"

He whirled around and she watched his eyes widen comically. "Donna!" She swept him up into a tight hug. "Unggh. I can't breathe, Donna." She did not let go for a few minutes and when she finally did Mike gasped, rubbing at his ribs, but he smiled at her happily.

"How are you doing? How are you feeling? Jesus, Mike, you're so skinny. Have they fed you anything yet? You need a change of clothes and a shower and – "

"That all sounds, uh, great, Donna, but – "

"Did you just interrupt me, pup?"

He stiffened and eyed her warily as she glared up at him with her hands on her hips. "Good boy. Now, have you eaten anything yet?"

"Well, uh, no, not yet, but they won't let me take a step without making me drink water."

"Which you should really drink again," Brad said, holding up the half-empty cup and shaking it.

Donna snatched it up and shoved it into Mike's hands. "Drink up!" He guzzled it under her steely eye and set the cup back down with a grimace.

"Okay, please, no more water. I mean, the first two cups were refreshing but the last two have been…well, I think I've drunk enough for an elephant. Please. No more!"

The secretary glanced over at Brad and he nodded. "He needs food now. I've just been spending the last five minutes trying to convince him to get something from the hospital cafeteria – "

"No! No, see, Donna, it's about Harvey, he's in bad shape," Mike said.

"So I heard."

"No, you don't understand! He was delusional and…I was really worried. I mean, he was, he was bad," Mike finished lamely, kneading his knuckles into his eyes. "Donna, they said that if we hadn't been found in another hour or two, Harvey would have been dead." The associate seemed to run out of steam and he slumped. Brad and Donna both grabbed him and carefully guided him to a chair where he stared balefully down at his feet.

"Mike, you need to calm down. All right? Now, listen to me very carefully. Brad and I cannot possibly comprehend what you and Harvey went through stuck together for three days in a shipping container. God only knows I can barely stand the egoism he oozes during the normal work day, I can't imagine being in his presence for three days, and without food or water." Mike smiled at this and he actually glanced up at her to find was staring down at him fondly. "Every scenario I imagined while you were gone, I always assumed you were both just seconds away from tearing the other's throat out. But what I'm really trying to say, Mike, is that you really shouldn't think about what 'could have' happened. You'll drive yourself crazy. What matters, is that you're both out of there now."

"He could still die," Mike replied weakly. "He tried so hard to get us out of there and he kept on trying to keep my spirits up the whole time." Donna and Brad both glanced at each other with incredulous looks. "I know, right? Harvey a beacon of hope and optimism? But he just kept saying that we were going to get out. 'Donna will find us. It's Donna. She's got contacts. We'll make it. Don't worry and don't you dare talk about food or water, or I may have to kill you.'"

"That sounds a little bit more like Harvey."

"I just…he can't die!"

Donna stared at him for a moment, contemplating the next thing she was going to say and then she asked, "Brad, what have the doctors said about Harvey's condition?"

"Pneumonia. He had a temperature of 104 and was chronically dehydrated, but now that he was in the hospital, he was very likely to make a full recovery and quickly at that."

"Mike, you yourself said that Harvey did a lot to keep your spirits up and keep you going. What do you think he'd say to you right now if he knew you were pacing and refusing to eat?"

The associate didn't even hesitate. "'Don't be an idiot, Mike. I know you're sappy and naïve on a regular basis, but this kind of loyalty is stupid even for you. Go and get something to eat, sleep. Remember, I need you at full health or you're no good to me.'"

"Aww…look at that. He learns so fast," Donna said. "Now, you don't want me to have to tell Harvey about this so that you can get his 'Are you purposely trying to get killed?' speech."

Mike shuddered and lowered his head, but he was smiling irrepressibly. "No."

"Good, then you'll – "

"Family to Mr. Specter?"

"Yes?" Donna turned on a dime to find the doctor standing outside the doorway.

"Well, I'm pleased to tell you that he is stable and resting comfortably. Almost as soon as we started the IV, his temperature started to drop and now it's at 100.2. He's also on antibiotics and, depending on his progress, may be ready to be released from the hospital by tomorrow afternoon."

"See? There we go, Mike. Now, go down to the cafeteria and get some food."

"But it's hospital food!"

"Eat it all and I'll get you a milk shake when we go to get you a set of clothes, all right?"

* * *

><p><strong>You can all breathe a sigh of relief now. Isn't it nice? <strong>


	12. Recovered

**Author's Note: Aww...thank you all so much for reading and your reviews. I really appreciate it. Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I had two different instances of the same scene warring in my head, so it took a little time to untangle them. **

**Now I'm racing to beat my bedtime, so this chapter is unfortunately not edited. Please excuse any mistakes. ^^ Enjoy!**

**Recovered**

The first thing Harvey noticed was the white light burning through his eyelids and his first thought was, _I must be dead._ From what he could conclude, he felt like he was lying down in front of the pearly gate, for the surface was soft and the temperature mild.

This didn't make any sense. He was not a believer by any stretch of the word and any religion he grew up with he had privately renounced. Dante had no evidence of the physical structure of hell, but he was certainly right about the heathens and atheists as likely to be cast down as unrepentant sinners. Maybe St. Peter liked to do it once the newcomers had opened their eyes.

Then his hearing finally caught up to him and he heard whispered voices.

"I think he's awake."

"Hmm? Are you sure?"

"His fingers are twitching…"

"That could be a dream…"

"His eyelids are moving."

"Again, Mike."

"No wait." Then he heard the voice speak in what sounded like a breathless whisper, "Hey, Harvey?"

Harvey inhaled a little deeper and stirred. All at once he felt like his senses were rushing back to him and he suddenly felt the throbbing ache that seemed to emanate from every bone in his body, but he didn't even have the will to open his mouth.

"See? See?"

"Take it easy, pup. I don't think Harvey can take that kind of energy right now. Here. Let me." He heard a shuffling and felt the bed dip as someone sat down and then he felt soft fingers gently wrap around his and he instinctively flexed around them. He knew that voice.

"Well, he's in there somewhere. Harvey?"

He attempted to crack his eyes open, but the light seared straight through his brain and he close them again.

"Mike, can you dim the light a little?" The brightness faded. "Hey?"

He tried again, but Donna appeared only as a silhouette as she leaned over to block most of the light. "Harvey? Just so you know, I'm charging you for all the hair treatments I'll need to get rid of all these gray hairs."

Harvey smirked and this time forced himself to focus on her until he could clearly see she was smiling down on him.

"Your hair looks fine to me," He croaked and winced. Was that really his voice?

"Just wait for it. The stress will show eventually."

"Well, you're still a sight for sore eyes."

She groaned and shook her head in mock dismay. "Are you honestly using lame pick-up lines on me?"

He smiled tiredly at her. "Merely stating a simple truth." He watched her eyes soften and, for the briefest moment, she looked agonized by all the fear and anxiety she had pent up over the last few days, but he saw her defenses latch back into place again and she smiled wryly at him.

"I'd say the same thing, but you look pretty sore yourself.

He smiled weakly at her but a thought came to him. He reached up to grasp her arm so that he had her full attention. "Are you okay?"

"Me? I wasn't the one who was trapped in a shipping container," she replied.

Harvey frowned severely at her.

"He means, did Lu – "

"I knew what he meant, Mike. You told me everything already, remember?" Donna said crisply. Harvey could tell she was trying so hard to stay civil. Mike was not the crux of her irritation, but she was clearly running out of patience. She visibly took an extra second to collect herself and looked Harvey straight in the eye: "No one came after me, Harvey. There were no signs that I was being followed or any other warnings that I was in danger. You can relax now."

He searched her eyes and then nodded, accepting that it was the truth and he released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He slumped back against the pillow and stared at Donna's side. "Mike?"

"Right here," Mike answered, side-stepping Donna even as she stepped back.

"How are you holding up?" Harvey asked, raking over his associate's still too thin form.

"I'm fine. And, yes, I've had enough water for an elephant and I just finished drinking a shake after a good meal. Donna was appropriately threatening like always."

"Someone's gotta keep you in line, pup."

"Yeah, she and Brad practically dragged me down to the hospital cafeteria."

"Brad? Brad Henshaw?" Harvey sat up with a little more energy and glanced around the room as though he expected him to be hiding in the shadows.

"Why yes," Donna replied with a pleased smile. "He's the one who actually found you guys. He's with Detective Summers now, chasing some leads."

The lawyer affected a look of disgust. "Summers? Roy Summers? You had him searching for us? No wonder he didn't find us sooner."

"Harvey Specter, you will show the proper gratitude when he gets here. He worked very hard to find you and he's senior detective now."

"Oh, my mistake. We are talking about the same guy who couldn't find his own ass?" He eyed her and asked, "Don't you have enough influence to get the best?"

She stared down her nose at him with her arms crossed. "Except we both know Curtis wouldn't drop crap for you."

He sighed and shook his head, leaning back into the pillows once more. "I really don't' know why there's bad blood between us."

"Probably has to do with the fact that you slept with his girlfriend."

"She said they were just friends! He should thank me, really, because I know for a fact he met his wife for the first time the week after."

"Yes, I'm sure that's how he'll look at it."

He didn't fight the smile that was breaking over his face. He had really, truly missed this and her and now that he was no longer on death's doorstep, he was willing to admit how terrified he had been at the thought of never seeing her again. Harvey Specter was not a touchy-feely person by any stretch of the imagination, but the urge to either hug her or kiss her was almost impossible to resist. She seemed to recognize the look on his face she gave him one of her own that said, _'We'll talk later.'_

"Are you okay, Harvey?"

The lawyer turned and raised an eyebrow in question at his associate.

"You haven't made a single movie reference."

"Not every situation calls for a movie reference, Mike," he replied dryly and with a roll of his eyes.

"Just trying to get a rise out of you," Mike replied with a grin. It just as suddenly vanished and he asked in a low voice, "What exactly do you remember?"

Harvey tilted his head and said, "I remember up to getting loaded onto the boat. I also recall your poorly hidden attempt at fishing information out of me," he glared mockingly but Mike was staring too intently to notice, "which I gave because…there was nothing else to do." His jaw shut with a snap, but the real sentence hung in the air: _'Because I thought we were going to die.'_

"After that, my memory gets fuzzy. I remember feeling hot and cold and, well, miserable. You were screaming something at one point and….hmm…I know I said something back, but I don't know what. Nothing else after that. Why? What did I say?"

Mike seemed to deflate and replied noncommittally, "Oh, not much. You seemed to be under the impression we were in the office. That's all."

Harvey glanced at Donna with a question in his eyes and her return shrug said, 'I'll tell you later.'

"As much fun as I've had talking, I'm getting drowsy and would like to go to the bathroom." He sat up, grimacing at the crack of felt like every single vertebrae in his spine. "Damn, my back hurts."

"Want some help?" Donna asked, a peculiar expression on her face as she watched him struggle.

"Maybe just so you don't have to pick me up off the floor," he replied, gingerly getting to his feet and feeling his knees shake like an old man, leaning heavily on the IV pole. Donna was around the fed faster than Mike and she grabbed his elbow to steady him.

Ever as embarrassed as he felt, he was quickly running out of the energy to walk let alone do it with stability. "I hate being sick," he grumbled.

"and you still haven't eaten in three days. You're probably shaky from that, too," Donna said, hesitantly letting him go as he shuffled the few fee tot eh bathroom door. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Need anymore help?"

"I think I can manage. Feel free to come barging in if I'm not back out in five minutes." But he made it back out and collapsed on the bed without incident. He was situated and just about to nod off, when he said, "Mike, why the hell are you still here? Don't think I didn't just see you yawn. I thought you'd be collapsed in your own bed right now."

"I was worried about you! I'm fine."

Harvey snorted. "And I' not the best closer in New York. As you can see, I'm in something called a hospital and they have a tendency of keeping people from dying. You can quit your ridiculous puppy act. When I called you one, I didn't mean for you to take it so literally."

"Well, sorry, but I thought you were dying," Mike replied with an undercurrent of bitterness. "I'm glad to see my concern was so misplaced."

"Mike, you're being silly. His welfare has been seen to, so now it's time to see to yours. Don't worry, Harvey, Rachel's coming in an hour to pick Mike up and watch over him for the night."

"What?"

"Don't give me that. You really shouldn't be alone right now, but both of you really need some time away from each other."

"Yeah, but…"

"Michael James Ross, if you speak one more word of protest, I will kick your bike into the street. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Don't ever call me ma'am. Makes me seem old."

"All right, uh, Ms."

Donna still frowned at him, but it had no fire. It was only then that she turned back to Harvey and found him fast asleep curled up on his side.

**~+.Suits.+~**

"Roy, I am not afraid to knock you out and have Brad drag your carcass out of here."

"Well, Donna, knowing Harvey, I figured he would like to hear this information as soon as possible."

"Yes, but he fell asleep half an hour ago after a nasty bout of pneumonia. He can stand to get the information _tomorrow_. That's probably when you're going to have to relay it to him."

_Both have a point, _Harvey's sluggishly exhausted brain thought as his ears slowly tuned into the conversation. Summers was speaking in a normal tone, but Donna's was a furious whisper and he could just imagine that she had her hands on her hips and was glaring daggers. He had to admit, Summers had grown a pair since he knew him a decade ago if he could stand to look Donna straight in the eye.

However, he was so tired that he was just barely bordering on consciousness. He could hear and understand what they were saying, but he was certain he was still breathing in a sleep rhythm and although he could feel his right arm, the one without the IV, had twisted up under him, he still hadn't felt the need to move or so much as twitch an eyelid. But if Summers was there, it undoubtedly had to do with Lucio, so he willed his mind to awaken.

"I would rather not facilitate violence here, but I would prefer you not disturb him right now. He _has_ been through a lot and if he fell asleep only recently then he probably won't wake," Jessica suddenly said in her low and even voice.

"It's a bit late for that now," Harvey spoke up in a very sleep-laden voice and he opened his eyes groggily and tried to keep them open. When he finally could focus he could see Mike, Donna, Summers, Brad, and Jessica all staring at him, the women with annoyance – he was certain was direct at Summers – and the men all with a mixture of relief, curiosity, and smugness. "Have you all just been standing there watching me sleep? That's not a little creepy at all," he said eyeing them archly and leveraging himself up off his shoulder so that he could sit back on his pillow again.

"How are you feeling, Harvey?" Jessica asked. Her relief was palpable and it took some effort to keep from smiling.

"Could be better," he replied, his eyes darting to the heart monitory to find that his temperature was still at a toasty 100 degrees F. Everything about his head, from his skin to his lips and the inside of his throat, felt torturously dry and he conspicuously looked over the room for a cup of something.

"What do you need?"

"Water," he replied hoarsely.

Donna strode briskly to the bathroom. They heard the sound of running water and then she was back out with a half-filled glass in her hand which he drank eagerly. "Much better," he mumbled, rubbing at his throat. Now all that bothered him was the glue clogging his lungs, but sleep and powerful antibiotics were going to take care of that eventually. "All right, Summers, what have you found on Lucio?"

"Very astute of you."

"No other reason for you to be here. Now come on, I could fall asleep again."

He was certain he could see Donna smilingly smugly at Summers as her point was made.

"Right. We have Lucio in custody."

"So, is the mafia going to fall on me and Mike?"

"No. Because there is no mafia."

Harvey raised his eyebrows in question and Summers smiled in smug satisfaction. "Lucio is nothing more than a petty rich boy businessman. He was fed up with Lombardi stiffing him of his money and made a threat that he was going to hire a hit on the man. Other businessmen who had been stiffed by Lombardi said they'd throw their money in on the hit, so he pocketed most of it, hired a couple of thugs, and went after Lombardi himself."

The lawyer snorted in amusement. "I can see where this is going."

"Yep. Really, he did a decent job of covering his tracks – clearly been watching all those crime shows they have on now – but he really did not factor in the human element. He didn't factor in you or Mike or the stupid limousine driver who dumped you off with him. Almost as soon as he was in cuffs, he was pointing fingers at all the thugs and businessmen who had paid for the deal. As it turns out, one of the businessmen is owner of the shipping yard you were stuck in, which is why you and Mike made it onto the boat like you did. One of the dockworkers came forward about you being in the container and that's how we found you. At any rate, he is going to have a lot of enemies at the end of this."

"He seemed awfully confident when he _did_ kill Lombardi," Harvey replied, with a frown. Had he completely misread the guy? Lucio had definitely struck him as young and maybe slightly inexperienced, but the way he killed Lombardi had been coldly efficient and professional; not something to be trifled with.

"We've already scheduled him an appointment for a psych exam, but most of us in the business would chalk it up to the climax of the thrill of the hunt. He finally had the guy right where he wanted and had the clear motivation to murder him. That's really all it boils down to." Harvey shrugged, giving Summers the sense that he was losing the lawyers attention and ploughed on, "Now, because Lucio has been such a wealth of information, you and Mr. Ross, probably won't have to testify. Or one of you may have to."

"Whatever. The point is, we don't have to worry about hits being taken out on us. Have you found Lombardi's body?"

"Not yet, but Lucio said it was dumped in the river."

Harvey turned to Mike. "See? I told you they probably dumped him in the river."

"I never doubted that, Harvey."

"Well, consider all your fears allayed. Now, get out of here. Or trade places with me, because I would much rather be sleeping in my bed than here."

"I see Rachel coming," Donna said, glancing out the door and even Harvey saw the pretty paralegal hanging back from the room.

"Yeah, fine, I'll leave. Goodnight, Harvey. I'm glad you're better."

Harvey nodded, then a thought struck him and he said, "Don't you dare go into work tomorrow or I'll sick Donna on you."

"Neither _one_ of you will be at work until next Monday at the earliest, and even then I might not be satisfied," Jessica said, her eyes flashing at Harvey and he stared back innocently.

Mike scrunched under the hard stare and scurried out of there as quickly as he could.

Harvey scowled. "Why doesn't he do that for me?"

Donna and Jessica merely chuckled until finally the secretary said, "All right, Roy, you delivered the news despite my wishes. Now, get out of here. You've done a great job. Right, Harvey?"

The lawyer did not even flinch at all under Donna's glare now redirected at him, but he turned to Roy, gave him a measured look, and then finally said, "Yes, I guess I should thank you for saving us. We did need it." He held out his hand which felt like lead and Summers took it.

"You're welcome. Feel better." With that the Detective was out the door.

Brad lingered.

"Aren't you gonna follow?"

"I'm not a Detective."

"Then why were you there? Donna told me you were the one who actually found us."

"Well, that's what I volunteered to do, so now my job is basically done. I'm too close to the case to pursue or take it to trial. Glad to see you alive, Harv. We should go for drinks sometime. Bring the kid, too."

Harvey made a face at him. "Why?

Brad try to smother his smile. "Because he's changed you. I have to meet the kid that managed to soften you up."

"I am not soft," Harvey replied, but he felt it lacked the real force necessary in the awful croak. "I am _still_ the best closer in the city, helped along by that kid. That's all."

"Yes, you're a total hard ass. Anyone can see that?" Brad said as he bee-lined for the door.

Harvey didn't have an answer and merely gritted his teeth. There was nothing he could say that wouldn't sound desperate rather than argumentative but, damn it, he _was _going to set the record straight when their first round of drinks at the bar came around. But for now, sleep sounded like the best idea in the world.

He slumped back into the pillow and allowed his body to sink as he closed his eyes which seemed to bring on a massive wave of exhaustion. The last thing he remembered was Donna running his fingers through his hair.

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed that chapter. =) I think I have just one more up my sleeve and then this story will officially be done.<strong>

**hollowgirl15 - I do have plenty more ideas to send the boys through, but my next story is going to be pretty light-hearted humor and fluff to make for the ultra-intensity of this fic. XD **

**Thank you all so much for reading! **


	13. Mike's Healing

**Author's note: Thank you, guys, for reading. And a double thank you to those who have reviewed up to now. =) You're all awesome and therefore, you get a treat...**

**This is not the last chapter!**

**I was writing and writing and writing and then I was thinking, "Geez, I'm not even to Harvey's part yet." So you get yet another chapter after this. I think a story needs good flow and squeezing in Harvey's part would have made this chapter really long and a little awkward. Enjoy!**

**Mike's Healing**

Mike could feel the boat rocking beneath his back. It was quiet in the container. Too quiet. The only thing he could hear besides the creak of the ship was the sound of his own breathing.

He sat up and peered around in the pitch black. "Harvey?" He called out, cringing at the way his voice rebounded back to him and echoed. "Harvey, where are you?"

He shakily twisted up onto his feet and stalked along the walls, his hands stretched out before him like feelers in the dark as he hoped to bump into the older lawyer. All he found was wall and floor

"Harvey?"

Mike checked every square inch three times, four. Yet he found nothing and finally curled up against the wall, trembling violently and hugging his knees to him. As much as he tried to resist the tears welled up and he could feel them spilling down his cheek like water overfilling its container. _Doesn't matter anyway. No one's going to see you cry, _he thought to himself, rocking back and forth, shaking and shuddering as everything seemed to pile on him all at once: his impending death but, most of all, the complete and utter loneliness.

Then something fell against his shoulder.

Mike jumped a foot in the air, then turned to the thing with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. "H-harvey?" He reached for a found the fabric of a shirt, but he could feel that it was on something hard and shop. And _bony_. His heart started to pound almost painfully and he had to swallow bile that was threatening to rise in his throat. As he reached his hand up, he found what he thought was Harvey's head – he could feel greasy, unkempt hair – but when he turned it, a gleaming white skull grinned at him and he screamed.

Suddenly he could see eyes gleaming out at him and the jaw fell open. "Why didn't you die? You're a toothpick," a voice said. He could just hear the deep thrum of Harvey's voice, but it was sick, weak, and raspy. "You'll be dead soon anyway. You're already halfway there." It started pointedly at his hands.

Mike glanced at them and screamed again, reeling back away from the skeletal Harvey. The flesh of his hand had rotted completely away and even as he watched he could see more skin falling off in chunks to litter the floor. He howled again, violently shaking his hand as though that could stop the decay.

"Hahaha. You're trying to fight it. But it's too late. It always was too late. For all those smarts and that freakish brain, you really know how to overlook the obvious. Hahahaha. I knew I should've hired someone else, then I might actually be alive! Hahahahahaha!"

The laughed echoed through the shipping container, blending with Mike's cries of absolute terror. The noise compounded, pressing on his ear drums until he was certainly they would explode.

"NO! Harvey! Harvey, please!"

"Mike, wake up! Mike!"

"No," Mike screamed and jolted upright, nearly colliding head to head with Rachel.

She jumped back to avoid him, but then she was back with a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Hey, hey, It's okay. You're safe now."

Mike was gasping for breath as if he'd just run a marathon and he glanced around the room wildly to reorient himself. He wasn't in the container anymore. Harvey was alive and safe; or was he?

A glass of water suddenly appeared in his field of vision and he took it, tipping the glass so far back rivulets ran down his chin.

"Whoa! Easy, Mike. We don't want you choking on anything," Rachel said, easing the glass from his hand so that she could take it back to his crappy kitchen.

He still remembered the palpable relief he felt when he'd stepped through the door. The paint was peeling from the walls, books cluttered every available surface and there was absolutely nothing in his fridge. Just like always. It all screamed home to him and he could keep from grinning stupidly. That changed in just ten seconds when Rachel stepped through the door. He flushed furious and started picking up the scattered remains of his suits and some of his books, apologizing profusely at his lack of tidiness.

She had only giggled at him and said, "Mike, it's okay. It's not like you had the chance to clean up before I came over. Come on, you're tired. Why don't you go to bed? We'll clean your apartment tomorrow if that's what you'd like."

So he had thrown himself on his bed and was out like a light.

Now he could see his clock blaring red letters of 2:00 am. Jesus, he had already slept six hours when it felt like only a few minutes.

"Would you like more water?" Rachel asked with a full cup ready in her hand.

"I want to talk to Harvey. Please, can we call Harvey?"

"Sure thing, Mike, I'll find Donna's number," Rachel said, setting down the cup on his nightstand and hurrying off back to her purse to dig out her phone that was next to the couch.

_Harvey's just fine and will probably chew you out for waking him up, _Mike thought as he kneaded his forehead.

"Hi, Donna," Rachel said and she wore a peculiar look on her face as the secretary no doubt answered. "Sorry to call you at this time, but Mike needs to speak with you."

She handed her phone over and, after a deep breath, Mike said, "Hey, uh, Donna. I hope I didn't wake you."

"No, I was still awake," Donna replied.

He frowned. There was an odd quality to her voice as though she sounded disgruntled or angry. Licking his lips he continued, "I'm calling because I'd like to speak with Harvey."

She sighed heavily. "I would hand him the phone if I could, but I can't."

"I-I understand if he's asleep and you don't want to wake him, it's just that – " He couldn't quite finish the sentence but Donna stepped in before he could.

"That's not it, Mike. I can't hand him the phone because I'm not with him anymore. They booted me out of the hospital. 'Visiting hours are over,'" she said in a deep caricatured voice.

"What?"

"Yes, Harvey's spending the night in the hospital alone."

"I…can't imagine he's too pleased about that."

"He was pissed. They kicked me out just as they were trying to feed him dinner, but he wouldn't eat a single bite of it because they were practically wrestling me out of his room. I kept telling him that leaving him alone probably wouldn't be the best thing for his psyche but nooooo! 'We have staff on hand. That's what they're here for, to attend to the patients.' I told him he wouldn't agree with that but they kicked me out," she growled, but then he heard her inhale and exhale. "I'm sorry for venting at you, Mike. You're not the one I'm angry with."

Through the whole tirade, Mike's face went from surprised to a full grin by the end. Her clear annoyance had all but wiped the fragments of his dream from his mind and he couldn't keep from chuckling when she finally finished, "It's all right, Donna. Wow. I can't believe they had the guts to kick you out. But, really, they kicked you out? I can just imagine how Harvey must have been."

The older lawyer may have been the picture of the lone shark, but after a three day ordeal in a shipping container and being sick with pneumonia, even he craved a little contact. As much as he appeared immortal and untouchable, Mike constantly had to remind himself that Harvey was just as human as the rest of them and cooped up all alone in the hospital would drive anyone crazy. He shuddered at the thought. Of being alone, all alone, stuck in a hospital bed of all places. The thought was scary enough to replace the dream he'd just had as the center of his greatest fears.

"Yeah," Donna replied lamely, giving him the impression that she had been about to spill something important but had held it back at the last. Mike felt a pang of annoyance. He had just spent three days trapped with his boss and mentor and thought perhaps he had earned the right to know a bit more about him, but Harvey was practically the poster child of privacy. He did not let anything go without a fight.

Mike then wondered how long it took Donna to gain his trust enough for him to tell her his secrets, but it _was _Donna. She had probably somehow uncovered them all before he could tell her anything.

"So, can we meet you at the hospital tomorrow morning and maybe see Harvey then?"

"Oh, I wouldn't do that."

Mike narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Uh, why not?"

"You think Harvey's an asshole on a regular basis, imagine what he'll be like in the morning after a night all by himself."

The associate winced and gulped. "I see what you mean."

"Give me until the afternoon to defuse his temper when, hopefully, he's had a nap and he's out of the hospital."

"Uh, sure," Mike said. He hesitated a moment then plunged on, "Do you think Harvey's okay? I mean, uh, aside from having pneumonia, he's all right, right?"

"I haven't gotten a call from the hospital yet saying otherwise, so, yes, he is…as fine as can be," Donna replied. She seemed to understand the unspoken words behind his question and her voice had softened to soothe him of whatever nightmare he'd had. "You should visit your gram tomorrow, Mike. I know she can't wait to see you again."

Mike perked up and he asked, "Did she know I was gone?"

"Yes. I told her on the morning of the third day. I didn't want to worry her unnecessarily in case we found you before then, but…I felt it was wrong to keep it from her any longer."

"Thank you, Donna. I really appreciate it."

"Of course. So go see her. She wanted to see you last night, but I told her you needed the rest of the day to recover."

"Right. I will."

"Now, try to get more sleep. I can't have a grumpy associate and a grumpy lawyer tomorrow or I may brain you both!"

"Sure thing, Donna. I almost missed those threats."

"You'll be getting a lot more of them if you try to head back to work anytime before Monday."

"I guess I'll have to start ramping up the complaints this weekend then. I'm kidding! Please don't hurt me."

"I won't hurt you, Mike," Donna replied sweetly. "I'll just set a lethal Harvey on you."

"What? Won't he be dying to go back to work too?"

"Maybe, but he'll be willing to sit out 'til Monday once he looks in the mirror."

"Appearances are everything," Mike replied in a mocking imitation of his boss.

"That's right, pup. Now bedtime!"

"But…"

"You need sleep. Now, mind handing the phone back to Rachel?"

"Sure thing," Mike replied glumly and handed it over. He had spent all evening trying to avoid sleep because he knew the nightmares would start up. He found it kind of puzzling that he didn't have any while they were trapped, but he attributed that to being safe and secure in Harvey's arms. Now, he once again felt like a child lost without his parents. _You're a grown man, _he chided himself, _You shouldn't need Harvey to be next door to feel safe._ It didn't help, though, that the older lawyer radiated safety and security.

Rachel hung up after a brief conversation he hadn't been paying attention to, so he started out of his brooding when she touched a hand to his shoulder. "Hey, care to go back to sleep?"

"Not really," Mike muttered, hanging his head down.

"Well, then, why don't we watch a movie? I can make some popcorn," Rachel said with a bright smile that always made him smile in return.

"Popcorn sounds great, but I don't think I have any here," he said, glancing over to the kitchen as though he expected some to magically appear.

"Donna told me your pantry was likely to be all cobwebs, so I came prepared," she said, walking over to her little duffle and pulled it out with a flourish.

Mike grinned. "It's not something weird like spinach-flavored popcorn, is it?"

"No knocking my eclectic taste in food," she shot back, half-heartedly throwing a pillow at his head. "I don't think such a thing exists anyway."

He knocked the pillow out of the air. "It was a legitimate concern."

"Hmmph," she said and headed off to the kitchen to start the microwave. She turned around and leaned over the counter and asked, "So, what do you want to watch?"

"Something pretty light," Mike said with a shrug.

"Oooh, like _Love, Actually_?"

He groaned. "No romantic comedies please!"

"That's a great movie!"

"It was good, but…I'm not feeling it. If I had _Casablanca_ on DVD, I'd make you watch that."

"I'd be up for _Dirty Dancing_."

"I don't have that on DVD either. I'm thinking Spaceballs or Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

"Yeah, those were pretty good, I guess."

"Well, we're watching one."

Barely an hour into the movie, Mike fell asleep. Just as it was about to end, Mike began twitching Rachel could hear him muttering under his breath, but the words were inaudible. She did her best to put it out of her mind; as long as he wasn't screaming or thrashing then she assumed he was okay. But five minutes later, she could see sweat pouring down his face and he was shaking uncontrollably.

"Mike. Mike, c'mon, wake up! You're safe now," she said in a soothing voice, tapping his shoulder. "Mike? Mike!"

He jolted again, in better control than the first time, but he was startled to find tears running down his face, which he hastily wiped away.

"Want to talk about it? It might help."

He shook his head, seeming unable to speak.

"It's nothing to be a shame of Mike; we all have nightmares. Just last week, I had a nightmare where I showed up to the firm naked and I was about a three-hundred pounds heavier. Everyone made fun of them, including Ms. Pearson. The next day I triple-checked to make sure I was wearing clothes."

Mike snorted with laughter. "Sounds traumatizing."

"Yeah, it was bad and I felt stupid afterwards, but that's how these things are."

"Well, you didn't want someone to comfort you, did you?" Mike asked with a sullen undertone.

"There's nothing wrong with wanting comfort, Mike. We are human after all. I had lunch the next day with a friend and she consoled me about it and we laughed it off. So, yes, I did seek comfort, even though I knew the dream hadn't been real."

Mike hesitated for a moment and said, "I'm not ready to tell you what happened, but…thanks Rachel. Just talking helped."

"You're welcome. It's 6 am. When does the nursing home open so that we can see your grandmother?"

"Well, it opens at 8, but I'd kinda like to have lunch with her."

"Sounds like a plan. Want to get cleaned up first or should I?"

**~+.Suits.+~**

"Michael!"

The older woman turned in her chair from the window and smiled brightly at him, already putting her hands up ready for a hug. He did not disappoint as he dashed into the room and hugged her. "Grammy, I'm so glad to see you."

"Good to see you too, Mike." Then she glanced over his shoulder and she said, "Hello there."

The associate winced and stepped back. "Sorry, but, yeah, Grammy, this is my friend, Rachel Zane," Mike said, going back to help lead her into the room. "She's a paralegal at Pearson Hardman and she's helped me out a lot on my cases."

"Hi, nice to meet you," Rachel greeted with a bashful smile as they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you."

"She's, uh, well, hmm, she's helping me out after the…thing," Mike muttered, feeling a blush creep up his cheek.

"Yes, I'm helping him…settle back in to, well, how his life was before," Rachel said, not being much more helpful than Mike and she also couldn't keep from blushing.

"You see, it's because, well, Donna is amazing, but she can't be in two places at once. So she's with Harvey right now." His smile faded a little and his eyes focused off in the distance as he was probably wondering how Harvey was doing; Donna had not yet called with an update.

Grammy nodded and addressed Rachel. "Well, thank you for helping him. God only knows what would happen to him if he didn't have _somebody_ telling him when to eat," she said, shaking her with a click of her tongue. The older woman clearly saw that not speaking of the kidnapping was an unspoken rule, so she tried to forget the situation altogether.

"He does have a habit of forgetting, but he's going to eat now. We brought lunch; Mike said you like Chinese," Rachel said, lifting up the bag that was in her hand.

"Oh, I can't wait. They don't often serve it around here," the older woman said.

They spent the rest of the afternoon exchanging humorous stories from one that took place in the firm – "There's another time Louis…" – to ones about Mike as a child – "Grammy, please, do we have to talk about that?" It was only after Donna texted them, telling them they could come over that Mike realized for the first time since he'd been rescued, he'd gone at least two hours without thinking about what happened in the container.

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks again for reading, reviewing, and putting this all on your alerts. I really appreciated it. =)<strong>


	14. Harvey's Healing

**Author's Notes: I apologize again for the long wait, but you lucky lucky readers get _two_ new chapters instead of just one. I decided that a return to work/status quo was the appropriate way to tie this story up and I've put them both up at once. Enjoy!  
><strong>

**Thank you, everyone, for reading and review! I hope you enjoy these two chapters.  
><strong>

**Harvey's Healing**

Donna strode through the halls of the hospital with a duffel, a cup of steaming coffee, and a paper bag with a glazed donut and all the hospital personnel fell out of her way as they saw her coming. She was a woman on a mission. She had walked through the hospital doors at 8:00am on the dot. She had spent the entire night formulating a plan of action to defuse Harvey. She had to have options because he could be finicky and intractable at the best of times.

She rounded the corner, with the precise words she was going to say on her lips, only to stop in her tracks and gasp. His room was empty. Not empty in that it was clear someone was staying there – perhaps the sheets were ruffled and strewn about – but obviously vacant. The sheets were new, crisp and clean, and the monitors were dark. She thought she felt her heart stutter to a halt and her blood ran cold as the possibilities of what could have happened ran through her head, none of them with happy endings.

_Stop right there, Donna, _she began to lecture herself. _You're his emergency contact. They would have called if anything happened. _ Donna drew in a deep breath and centered herself; she'd had her phone by her side at all times and she hadn't heard it go off once. She turned on her heel and went straight o the nurse's station.

"Excuse me?" She asked the only woman there who was on the phone and she merely received a slightly disgruntled look of acknowledgement. The conversation continued for several minutes until Donna finally had enough and reached over to disconnect.

"What – ?" The nurse's eyes flashed angrily. "Excuse me, that call involved important business – "

"I would hardly say having a girl's chat with another nurse is important business," Donna snapped. The woman blushed and Donna congratulated herself on her excellent instincts and continued before the nurse could answer. "Now, I happen to know the best lawyer in New York City, and I guarantee he'd be more than happy to sue you personally and this hospital bankrupt for shitty patient care, service, and food. Now, where is the patient Harvey Specter?"

The woman paled until her skin looked gray and she leafed through the records and stammered, "He, uh, he checked out AMA around 7:15 this morning."

Donna closed her eyes and cursed the closer's complete lack of patience. Harvey may not like hospitals but he wasn't irrational. He must've been much more miserable the night before than she could have imagined. However, there was no reason for his not calling her – he had no grudge against her – and he would have called if he was checking out early. She checked her phone and swore again. She had missed one call and, of course, he'd called while she was in the shower. It would be just like him. The secretary stood there, considering her next move when the screen lit up with a name: Ray.

Donna didn't even let the phone finish its first ring; "Please tell me you know where Harvey is."

"I'm with him at his condo right now. I'd pick you up but…I'm afraid to leave him alone. He looks…pretty bad."

She left the lukewarm coffee on the counter and rushed out to catch the first cab she saw. It didn't take more than fifteen minutes to reach his condo, even factoring in rush hour, but Donna couldn't help but feel that if she took one minute longer than necessary, then he might drop dead in the interim.

Donna took his private elevator up to the condo and found Ray standing, nervous and awkward, at the entrance to Harvey's bedroom. "How is he?" She asked, trying to be controlled and calm, but there was tension in her voice.

"He's…all right," Ray soothed her. "He tried to take a shower though and he never got the water running. I checked on him and when I told him you were on the way, he said he'd just wait for you."

"Well, that's one smart decision today. Thanks, Ray," Donna replied with a relieve smile. "Give me a minute to speak to him."

Right," Ray said and walked out to the living room and stiffly sat down on the expensive leather couch, acting like a child told not to touch anything. She knew, though, that many people might find it unfathomable to watch over their sick boss.

Donna knocked on the bathroom door and then opened it to find Harvey sitting naked in his own bath tub, with his knees drawn up so that he was hugging them and his eyes were closed as he pillowed his knees. She bit her lip to keep from gasping at the dark blue bruise that had developed on the back of his right shoulder, wondering where in the world he could have gotten it. He also happened to be breathing hard as if he'd done some heavy lifting. She bent down quietly and tentatively reached out to brush his forehead, which was slick with sweat. He stirred and opened fevered eyes that gazed dully at her.

"Hey," he mumbled in a croaking voice.

"Hey," she replied, not bothering to hide her worry.

"Sorry I couldn't wait for you," he said. "But I couldn't stand to be at that place another minute alone. Didn't sleep at all and I felt like shit. I wanted to go home."

"Can't say I was terribly impressed with the nursing staff when I saw them this morning," Donna said in a dark tone.

"They were awful." He fell silent and closed his eyes, keeping them closed so long that she thought he had fallen asleep but then he opened them again and shook his head. "I still can't believe they kicked you out. And they tried to feed me Jell-O; you know how much I hate that stuff."

"You asked for something else?" It was more of a statement than a question, but he answered anyway.

"Yes," his tone was bitter, but she knew it wasn't directed at her. "'The chefs have already gone home, so we'll see what we can do,'" he said in a mock girly voice, but he spoke the next sentence like it was toxic. "Cold soup. Couldn't even heat it up in the microwave." He shuddered as if the very thought made him cold.

Donna rubbed circles on his arm as he talked and, while outwardly she was composed, inwardly she was more than a little shaken. Harvey was in much worse shape than she initially realized. He had seemed fine the other night, if a little groggy, but leaving him in the hospital with just his thoughts to occupy him made his true state emerge, exacerbated by lack of food and the pneumonia that was creeping back up on him. Ray could not have said it better; Harvey was in bad shape.

"Hey, she whispered, shaking him lightly to get his attention again. "Let's get you cleaned up and into some clean clothes."

He chuckled which turned into a chest deep cough, but then said, "Sounds good. Any chance I can persuade you to let me burn those clothes in my sink?" He nodded at the dress shirt, pants, and vest he had been forced to wear out of the hospital and everything as completely smudged with dirt and wrinkled beyond repair.

"I'm sure that's the best way to keep from contaminating your condo, but not the safest," Donna replied, wrinkling her nose at them before returning her attention back to him. "Can you stand?"

He shook his head slowly. "No, I tried twice and almost fainted," he said bitterly.

"Harvey, you were just rescued from a dire situation. You're lucky to be alive! There's nothing to be ashamed of. Now, wait a moment so I can speak to Ray." She couldn't resist squeezing his bicep in a comforting gesture.

"Tell Ray he's going to get the biggest bonus of his life when I feel up to writing a check."

Donna found the driver where she left him and they quickly discussed their next move. She managed to convince him to stay for at least another half hour in case Harvey actually needed help getting out and dressed, and then she returned with the duffel bag she had picked up for him the other day with fresh clothes. Then she turned to stare down at him with her hands on her hips.

"So, how do you want to go about doing this?"

"Just turn on the water and give me the showerhead. I can wash myself, I just needed the spray."

"If you couldn't even get the water on, then I'm not leaving you to your own devices."

"Of course I could get the water on. I just couldn't reach my showerhead, so trying to wash would have been pointless. But now I can, so you don't need to babysit me."

"I wish I could agree with you, but I don't. Now, hold still and we can get this over with," Donna said, rolling up her sleeves. Harvey turned out better behaved than she anticipated, but then she thought he might have felt more mischievous if he wasn't feeling so sick. He had shown a little of the old Harvey when he insisted on washing his own hair. She had helped him wash his back, but then she tossed the sodden towel onto his head and deliberately walked to the door with her back turned.

"Your back is washed; you can wash everything else."

"Thanks, but do you really have to act like you've never seen a naked man before?"

"There's a difference between seeing just any naked man and my boss! I'd rather keep the two separate."

"Suit yourself, but I thought you were supposed to be the grown-up in this relationship."

"Only when you're acting like a spoiled brat."

"Weak," he replied. Even as much as she wanted to retort with something acidic, she was fighting a smile as the conversation fell into their normal dynamic. "I'm done," he declared and she heard him shut off the water. "Can you hand me my towel?"

"You need me to get Ray?" Donna asked, tossing him the towel.

"I can crawl out of here," he replied with a little indignation. She made a mental note that showers were a good way to make him feel better.

"Well, you can't exactly crawl onto your bed."

He made no reply and she decided to fetch Ray anyway as a precaution. She was almost surprised to come back and find that Harvey had crawled out of the tub and actually pulled on a pair of boxers.

"I thought you didn't care."

"I'd like to keep some dignity with my employees," he said, nodding at Ray.

"I'm your employee too!"

He gave her a bland stare and then finished toweling the water out of his hair.

She took that as a cue that now was not the time to banter with him and instead asked, "So, what's your plan of action?"

"Sleep. I want to sleep!"

"Are you sure you shouldn't get something to eat first?" Donna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Didn't Ray tell you? He raided my kitchen and made me eat cheese and crackers."

"Well, thank God one of you has some common sense," she replied, glancing at Ray with an expression of thanks.

Harvey leveraged himself up onto his feet using the toilet but he swayed dangerously and both Donna and Ray rushed to catch him before he fell face first into the bathroom rug. "You got him, Ray?"

"Yeah, I've got him. Come on, Harvey, you need to sleep."

The lawyer grumbled something unintelligible but he allowed himself to be led out into his bedroom, even taking a few steps himself, but when they finally set him down, he fell back in exhaustion.

"Thanks, Ray, I can handle him from here."

"If you say so, Donna. Don't hesitate to call if you need me again," Ray replied and started out the condo. "Feel better, Harvey. You're still my favorite backseat driver."

"I don't tell you how to drive," Harvey said, raising his head up weakly and staring after him with a mystified expression.

"That's why you're my favorite."

The lawyer rolled his eyes and laid back; he shivered from the frigid air in the apartment.

"You need more than just your boxers, Harvey. Here are sleep pants and a shirt." She tossed them onto them and he slowly pulled them on before curling up on the bed, but he flinched when he initially rolled onto his right shoulder and then turned over to curl up on his left side. Donna sat down on his bed and then asked, "Where'd you get that bruise?"

"Hmm? On my shoulder? I was using it to make noise in the container. I was hoping if someone heard the echo of me slamming my shoulder into the door, we'd be rescued. Well…it didn't work."

"Yes it did."

He lazily cracked an eye open at her in question.

"Mike told me that's what he was doing when you were hallucinating at the end. It's how Brad found you."

Harvey snorted. "Mike told me that wouldn't work!"

Donna smiled weakly at him as thoughts of where they'd be right now if they hadn't been found flooded her mind. She was almost certain Harvey would actually be dead and the thought alone was enough to make tears well up into her eyes, though she cursed herself as she tried to keep them from falling. It had taken all of her strength to keep up a brave front when she came across Mike, driven half-insane by lack of food and the panic, when all she wanted to do herself was camp out and hover over her best friend so that she could watch and manage every minute of his recovery. It had scared her more than she could say when the hospital staff had booted her from his room.

"Hey." She was only jostled from her thoughts when she felt his hand on hers. "I'm all right. A little under the weather, but I'll live. You don't need to get all weepy on me."

"I would hardly call this weepy, but Harvey…damn it! You scared the hell out of me! I nearly pulled my hair out worrying about you and Mike when you disappeared. I was afraid I would never see you again. I – I didn't want to think about it, but with you gone, I didn't have much work to do so I had all kinds of time to myself," she snapped and then she rubbed her eyes. It wasn't like her to lose control, but she was exhausted of her control and nearly four days without a good night's sleep. _Damn it, _she thought as she felt a few tears slip out down her cheeks and she did her best to hide them from him before he could see.

But of course he saw them. He was looking right at her and he reached up to swipe at least one of them away with his thumb, then he inched his hand up her arm until he had good leverage and pulled her down until she was lying next to him. It was then she decided that as long as she was embarrassing herself, she might as well go all the way and she curled in to use his better shoulder as a pillow. She was a little surprised when he wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

"If it makes you feel better," he began in a low voice, "I couldn't stop worrying about you."

"Because of Lucio's threat?"

"Yeah. It might sound ridiculous now, but at the time it seemed very real."

She felt him shudder beneath her and she had to wonder what exactly Lucio had said that unnerved him enough to fret to the point of panic. _I don't think I want to know_, she finally concluded and left the thought to rest.

They were quiet for a moment as their exhaustion crept up on them, but before Harvey could drift off, Donna spoke up once more: "Just so you know, if you call me from the hospital again and I don't answer and you don't try to call me back, I'm going to shove your phone down your throat."

The last thing she felt was the vibration in his chest as he hummed in amusement.

** ~+.Suits.+~**

Mike was having difficulty hiding his grin as he watched Rachel's jaw drop as they stepped into Harvey's private elevator. He'd never admit it but it _still_ impressed him. The ride was smooth, as always, and as unnerving as he thought it would be to live in a place that was almost entirely glass, he did find it handy that he could immediately see Donna putting dishes away in the kitchen and he saw Harvey stretched out on his leather couch asleep.

The secretary had dropped what she was doing in the kitchen to greet them and she said, "Hey, Mike. You're already looking better than you did last night," she said, pleased to see color in his cheeks and, even despite the nightmare that she suspected he'd had, the dark circles around his eyes were still not as pronounced.

"Hi, Donna. You…are actually looking better too. I mean, you looked so tired last night," he said as he watched her expression turn from content to mock threatening. "How's Harvey? He hasn't, uh, been too hard on you, has he?"

A strange look passed over her, but it was gone in the next instant and she smiled again. "He actually wasn't too grumpy this morning, but he's still pretty sick. We just ate, so don't expect him to be an amazing conversationalist."

"Only as long as he's willing to let me talk at him," Mike replied with a wry smile.

"You can talk all you want, pup, but I might not catch it all," Harvey suddenly said from the couch. The associate stepped closer to get a better look at him. The older lawyer was still looking far too pale and groggy to be considered normal, but he already _sounded_ better than he had the night before and a shower had done wonders for his originally haggard appearance.

Mike still appeared exhausted and hungry and far too thin, but there was a light in his eyes that spoke of being in much better shape than he had originally been. Harvey nodded approvingly. "Well, you look better, but you really need to figure out a way to gain weight. It makes you look unhealthy and that reflects poorly on me."

"Going senile old man? I mean, now many times have we had this conversation?" Mike said, trying to smother a grin as Harvey scowled at him.

"I can have Donna throw you out. It wouldn't be hard."

"You're cheating!"

"I'm not in the mood to argue with you on this."

"Not as great a lawyer as you think you are then."

"Whoa. Our relationship is not a democracy, it's a dictatorship. What I say goes, so you better watch yourself or I'll bury you in another set of bylaws when we get back," Harvey shot at him, but Mike could see that just this little back and forth seemed to be wearing the older lawyer out and he slumped back against the couch with a sigh.

"I'll be good. I called Donna last night because I was really worried about you and then I was even _more_ worried when she said you had to spend the night alone. Are you holding up okay?"

Harvey and Donna had decided simultaneously that they would leave out the part about him ditching the hospital and having a relapse in his sickness. His associate had not told Donna what inspired him to call at three in the morning, but the lateness of the hour pointed directly towards a nightmare that had obviously disturbed him enough to want to hear that Harvey's health was not in question. "I'm fine, Mike. Just trying to get rid of this damn cold," the lawyer said and yawned widely as if to emphasize his exhaustion.

"Pneumonia isn't something that you can just _get _over, Harvey," Mike replied with a grin. "I think you'll be disappointed in how quickly it'll go away."

The lawyer only grunted and then said, "Just make sure you sleep and eat enough to keep yourself from getting it."

"Right," Mike replied. It sounded hesitant if not a little disgruntled.

"You had a nightmare last night, didn't you?" Mike started and looked around, but the women were in the kitchen and he and Harvey were talking low enough that they wouldn't be heard. "I can read you like a book, pup. You had a nightmare."

"So? So what if I did?"

"You're the one acting ashamed. Dodging the subject. I haven't said anything to make you ashamed of it, have I?"

"It was stupid. It was nothing. Just a dream; a very obvious dream."

"You had to call Donna at three in the morning for reassurance. It was not just a dream to you. Now if you want to talk about it, talk, otherwise I'm going to fall asleep on you."

Mike ran a hand through his hair and sighed, shifting uneasily in the chair opposite Harvey. "Okay, in my dream, you were…dead. Already rotted to the bone and you were laughing at me and making fun of me as all of my skin started to rot off." He shuddered but before Harvey could even say anything he said, "It's stupid I know, it was just…so…so…"

"Terrifying," Harvey finally supplied, yawning again.

The associate sighed. "Yes, yes it was terrifying. Did you have any nightmares?"

"You're implying that I got any sleep at all last night."

"You didn't sleep?"

"I didn't sleep."

If anyone else were to listen on the conversation, they would have thought Harvey's admittance to not sleeping would not be a big deal, but to Mike it meant everything. Harvey revealed that even he, after four days stuck in a shipping container with his associate, had not wanted to be left alone. He had confessed to a very human quality of craving social contact and, as a result, could not sleep at all. Mike desperately fought the grin that was struggling to break out all over his face, but he was comforted; it now felt like he was not actually the only person struggling mentally, not just physically, to recover from the ordeal.

"I have to say, I am glad I was not you last night," Mike said, hoping to find a more comfortable ground to stand on but he found himself waiting in vain for a response. As he had mulled over Harvey's unspoken words, the lawyer had drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>I just love writing HarveyDonna banter. I hope you all enjoyed this.**

**Thank you for reading and any future reviews! =)  
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	15. Epilogue : Returned

**Author's Note: This is definitively the _last_ chapter of this fic. There shall be no more! Thank you for coming along the journey with me! It was a pleasure writing it for your enjoyment. =)  
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**Edit: I've noticed a lot of people clicking directly to this chapter. There is a _new_ chapter before this. You got two new chapters, so don't forget to click back first!**

**Epilogue : Returned**

_**Monday Morning**_

Going back to work was a surreal experience. _Everyone_ stared at them as they walked off the elevator to head to their respective offices. Harvey did his best to try and ignore them, but Mike had squirmed under so much attention and kept his head ducked as he followed his boss. Just as he was about to head down the hall that led to the associate's bullpen, Harvey called to him, "Mike, I have contracts I need you to draw up." So Mike slunk off after to him, trying to brush off the feeling as everyone continued to stare. "Don't you all have work to do?" Harvey snarled, causing most of the eyes to immediately fall back on their appointed tasks.

Donna was already sitting at her computer when they approached. She gave Harvey a cool look, but smiled gently enough at Mike as she put the contracts at the top of her cubicle for him to pick up.

"This isn't everything I wanted him to do," Harvey said, glancing at the small stack that was barely an inch thick.

"It's your first day back. He is _not_ going to stay late like it was any normal day."

"It _is_ a normal day, Donna. He needs to get back into routine."

"I think otherwise and so does Jessica," she replied with a fierce look that was just begging for a fight with him.

Harvey scowled, but then turned to Mike and said, "I want those on my desk by noon and then you're going to get something to eat or Donna will force feed you."

Mike flicked his eyes over to Donna who still held her warm smile for him, but there was a glint in her eye that suggested she was not above doing _that_ on Harvey's orders. "Just so you know, Harvey, I cleared your afternoon up so that you don't have anything to do and you can go home and rest."

"I'm fine," the lawyer bit back with a glower.

The associate tried to appear absorbed by the contracts he was looking over as he ferociously bit his lip trying to keep from mentioning to Harvey that he still looked quite ill. Once out of the hospital and after hours and hours of sleep, the older lawyer looked leagues better than he had the last time Mike saw him, but there were still dark circles under his eyes and he could tell that Harvey was still congested just by the inflection in his voice.

"You can't get over pneumonia in just five days, Harvey. It takes at least two weeks," Donna replied, reminding him of what Mike had said to him not three days earlier.

"I don't have two weeks!"

"You're right, but you can take it easy for a little while. I promise that resting will not kill you."

"And you call me the slave driver."

"Well, if I only have four hours to do this, then I'm going to get started," Mike said loudly, hoping to make a clean break and distract them enough to keep them from sniping at each other. Instead, they just ignored him, so he decided to make a quick retreat before either one of them could pull him into their argument.

"Hey look, it's Ross! Dun dun dun! The mighty waste of space makes his comeback. Is it true the reason you got kidnapped was because you made eye contact with a mob boss?" Gregory called out as soon as Mike came into view.

He closed his eyes, trying to keep the agitation down. He really thought they might cut him some slack from their teasing after he starved for four days in a shipping container, but a little human dignity appeared to be a bit much to ask for and he sighed. Now he almost wished he _was_ back in the shipping container, as boring as it had been, he at least did not have to listen to the other associates' harsh words. He sat down behind his cubicle without answering, in the hopes that they might give up their fishing, but after nearly a week deprived of their favorite target, they were chomping at the bit to release some of their pent up vitriol.

"That's what you heard? I heard he said something stupid, as usual. You know how he is, wrong place and wrong time all at once," Kyle said. He, Greg, and a few of the others who were especially evil to him were now crowding and hanging over his desk, even as he reached for the first contract to begin his work.

Steve made a show of sniffing loudly and said, "Four days in a shipping container? You stink like a skunk on a regular basis, but you must have smelled like rotting meat after you got out. No wonder Mr. Specter sent you home the minute he woke up."

Mike did his best to appear like the words were not affecting him, but he subconsciously drew his shoulders up as he ducked his head even further down and his ears grew warm from embarrassment.

"I heard he got sick with pneumonia and yet, somehow, you didn't. This proves my suspicions all along that you really _are_ a walking disease," Kyle said with his characteristic evil smirk.

The low hum of the associate's chuckling as one smart remark after another rained down on him, but he continued on with his work, shutting them out. It was only when he felt a certain presence that he glanced up, startled and asked, "Harvey, what are you doing here?"

A deathly silence fell over the five associates as they all turned around to find themselves standing practically toe to toe with Harvey Specter, was glaring down at them all with energy Mike hadn't seen since before the shipping container. "You five. Follow me," he said and he began walking back in the direction of his office, not even glancing back. There was no way a single one of the hapless associates would duck out on Harvey freaking Specter and they followed him, trembling from head to toe.

Mike couldn't keep a pleased smile from spreading over his face as he watched them go, pale and shaky, but he did feel a pang of disappointment that Harvey had not ripped them a new one in front of all the other associates.

"Where the hell is everybody?"

The associate glanced up in surprise to find Louis looking in vain at all the empty desks that would normally be filled with his lackeys practically falling all over themselves to his bitch work.

"Harvey's…lecturing them," Mike replied dully.

"Well, then you can do these. On my desk, tomorrow morning," Louis said, walking around his desk to stack a foot high stack of briefs. "Happy proofing." He left with a particularly nasty smile and Mike tried to keep from groaning. He was going to need another entire pot of coffee to get through the day, but first he would get through Harvey's contracts.

Barely two minutes later, Harvey returned with all five the associates and his own stack of papers and then he turned to face them all. Using Mike's cubicle as a prop he placed his papers on, he dug out a stack of papers twice as big as Mike's and shoved them into Kyle's hands. "See these contracts? I want them done by the end of the day, in my office."

"Wha – ? But – but, there's no wa – "

"Mike could do it," Harvey said, lowering his eyes to a threatening glare. "You want to be my associate, then you better goddamn prove you have what it takes."

Kyle paled and accepted the papers without further complaint.

He dug out another stack, bigger than Kyle's and promptly shoved them off into Greg's hands. "The Pentium briefs. There better not be a single comma out of place when you put these on my desk at the end of the day."

Greg's eyes widened comically and he worked his mouth like a fish as though he were daring to protest, but then he glanced at Kyle and glumly accepted the stack.

One by one, he handed each of them a stack of papers that was far more work than the deadlines he was giving them. "Now, you will do these assignments in the time allotted or I will tell Jessica _exactly_ what you said to my associate. Now, I will be in meetings for the rest of the day and you are all expected to report to Donna. She knows to expect you." Harvey said with a wicked smirk. Just as they turned to go to their respective desks, the senior partner said, "Oh and Kyle," he reached over Mike's cubicle and picked up the briefs that Louis had just dumped on him, "Louis needs these by tomorrow morning."

Kyle looked about ready to faint as he added the extra one thousand pages to his already large stack of paperwork and trotted off without another word.

Harvey turned to Mike. "What are you smirking at? You still need to get those contracts done before noon."

Mike just grinned up at him knowingly. "I'm sure that's the only reason."

"Damn right it is. I could see how quickly you were getting them done with them looming over your cubicle. We already have a shit ton of work to do, so I'm feeling even less tolerant of screw-ups."

The look he received from Mike alone was enough to convey his thought, _Because you were so tolerant _before_ the shipping container…_

"Don't roll your eyes at me. Remember, I've got Donna watching your ass too."

Mike just snorted. It certainly hadn't taken long to get back into the swing of things. It was not _quite_ a normal day at Pearson Hardman, but he had a feeling it would only be a few days before it was.

His nightmares had already started to fade.

**The End**


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